Publication Account

Date 1996

Event ID 1017942

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1017942

The town-house is situated on the N side of High Street, diagonally opposite the opening of West Port, the main road to Edinburgh. It is almost rectangular on plan, measuring 12.9m along the main (W) front by 7m, and is of three storeys, the upper one rising into the roof-space and having two dormers to the W At the centre of the W front there projects a semi-hexagonal stair-tower or steeple which carries a small timber framed spire. The building is constructed of random redsandstone rubble, now badly weathered, and was previously harled. In origin it may be ascribed to the late 16th or early 17th century, but it has undergone considerable later alteration. The N gable-wall is abutted by council offices which replaced an earlier house in 1927, while the S wall adjoins a lane, but some projecting tuskers in its lower part may indicate that an adjacent building, perhaps over a pend, stood here.

The windows of the W front are disposed irregularly, and represent various periods of work. The two ground-floor windows were enlarged in 1913, after the removal of a lean-to structure which contained a shop and the police office and enclosed the entrance. The two-light mullioned N window at first-floor level is of about the same date, but early views show that it replaced a slight projection containing a narrow slit. At least part of the opening S of the stair-tower is early, and it retains iron bars from the period when the room inside was used as a prison. The area S of this window has been much disturbed, and another early opening may have been blocked. The two dormer-windows, which have oval recesses in their pediments and quirked edge-rolls on the jambs and lintels, may be ascribed to the late 17th or early 18th century. The gables have crowsteps, and those facing the main front have gableted fronts, with bevelled sides and miniature ridgemouldings. The chimneystacks have bevelled copings, but that on the S gable has been much renewed.

The stair-tower has a bevelled plinth at a height of 2.6m. Its NW face contains the entrance-doorway, a flat-arched opening with a broad shallow-moulded surround, and this and the SW face contain small plain windows in the upper stages. The lower quoins are of weathered white sandstone, and differ from those of the two top stages, which rise above eaves-level and are defined by moulded string-courses; it is possible that these stages represent a slightly later addition. The top stage has clock-faces to N and S and square sundials, one with a stilted rectangular gnomon, in the NW and SW faces. The lower part of the spire is slated and its steep upper part is leadcovered, each face having oval louvred sound-holes.

The entrance-doorway leads past a stone newel-stair on the S side into a vaulted passage which continues to the rear of the building. Flanking this pend there are two barrel-vaulted rooms, which have been subject to alterations and blockings at various periods. It is probable that they were originally used as cells, and the windows in the S wall of the S room are later insertions, as are the front windows in both rooms (supra). There is also a blocked doorway in the W wall of the N room. To the rear of the S part of the building there is a small square chamber which may have been the 'thieves' hole' noted in 1802.7 In 1818 it was reported that the first storey contained the jailer's house, but in the late 19th century the S room housed the cell for the police office in the adjacent lean-to.

At first-floor level the stair-landing gives onto two rooms which are divided by an obliquely-set cross-wall. They are entered by substantial cross-lined and studded wooden doors. In 1838 the N room was being used to house criminals and the S one for non-burgess debtors. The N room has a massive fireplace in the centre of the N wall. The council-chamber, which occupies the whole of the second floor, has a deeplycoombed ceiling, and fireplaces in each gable-wall. The original doorway from the stair has a cross-lined wooden door. A doorway in the E part of the N wall was slapped through when the adjoining block was built in 1927. The walls are lined with fielded panelling, probably of early 18th-century date as are the two fireplaces which have quadrant-curves at the ends of their lintels. Above the N fireplace there are the royal arms of James VII and, painted on a wooden 'broad' (board) by Alexander Mackbyth in 1686, and over the S fireplace there are the Hanoverian royal arms on canvas. From this level of the stair-tower access is by ladder to the clock-stage. The bell, which hangs in the upper part of the spire, was cast by Thomas Mears 'in the first year of burgh reform, 1834'.

HISTORY

An earlier tolbooth was probably undergoing repairs in 1545-6, when the bailies held courts in the churchyard, and it was claimed during a lawsuit that 'quhair ever the Bailies holdis the Court, that is thair Towbuth'. In 1593 the inhabitants were ordered to cart stones from the quarry at Innerwick 'for the bigging of the Tolbuth', and two years later an agreement was made with William Nicholson, 'mender of the tounis knok'. It is possible that part of the surviving structure may date from this period, with the upper part of the stair-tower as a later addition. The only recorded work during the 17th century is the painting of the sundial, council-room and armorial panels undertaken by Alexander Mackbyth in 1686 (supra). Repairs were undertaken to the masonry and window fittings of the prison in 1705, and to the steeple in 1707, but in 1714 a Parliamentary duty on ale was obtained 'whereas the Town House and school are very old and of age decayed and must go to ruin unless speedily repaired'. The subsequent repairs may have included the large dormer-windows and the panelling of the council-chamber, and in 1723 timber was obtained to make three sash-windows for it. In 1816 the spire was repaired at an estimated cost of £80, but two years later it was proposed to build a new town-house, on the same site, to include 'a Council Room, Assembly Room, an Academy, and a Farmers' Hall '. Nothing came of this, although new Assembly Rooms were built in 1822, and the building was little altered until the renovations of 1911-13.

Information from ‘Tolbooths and Town-Houses: Civic Architecture in Scotland to 1833’ (1996).