Publication Account
Date 1987
Event ID 1016825
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016825
In this region a number oflocal authorities built elaborate water-towers in the 19th century to house water cisterns intended to supply water to their respective burghs. Many of these had a comparatively short life being replaced by more effIcient, lifless picturesque, rural reservoirs. Notable examples of these water-towers survive at Arbroath (NO 635407) in the form of a Gothic folly, and Montrose (NO 715588) in an octagonal tower, now converted to a dwelling house.
The Perth Waterworks designed by Dr Adam Anderson in 1832 in a neo-Classical style is a particularly fme example of this type of building. It is interesting for the quality of the architectural composition, its contribution to the townscape of Perth and for its early use of cast-iron as a cladding to the upper portion of the cistern-house.
The cistern-house has the appearance of a domed Roman rotunda and sits on the corner of the street terminating the classical terrace facing the South Inch. The pump house is partly concealed by the rotunda and the chimney of the pumping engine has the appearance of a Roman triumphal column. The upper portion of the rotunda, which originally housed the water cistern, is constructed of cast-iron painted to match the stonework of the rest of the building.
The building has recently been renovated as the Perth Tourist Information Office and as such is open to the public albeit without its original internal fittings.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Fife and Tayside’, (1987).
