Publication Account

Date 1996

Event ID 1018240

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1018240

Built in 1816 at the expense of the 5th Duke of Roxburghe and local subscribers, the town hall is set in a conspicuous position projecting into the Square from the NE. The present hall stands on the site ofthe tolbooth, which was described as 'old and ruinous' in the late 18th century. A painting of that period shows a three-storeyed hip-roofed building with an arcaded ground floor and a tall steeple projecting from the SW front. It is probable that some of the masonry of the tolbooth was reused in the construction of the present building.

The town hall is built of finely-wrought ashlar and is of rectangular plan, measuring 17.4m by 9m and having two storeys with twin hipped and slated roofs. The main (SW) front has a three-bay pedimented centre piece surmounted by an octagonal clock-tower. The fenestration is regular and the round-headed ground-floor windows and doorway are recessed within the arches of an original open arcade.

The building's present ornamental character, with Gibbs surrounds around the first-floor windows and an elaborate pedimented entrance-doorway, is largely the result of work carried out by J D Swanston of Kirkcaldy in 1904-6. Before these alterations, the ground-floor arcade was open on three sides to form a market-area. At first-floor level the detached Ionic columns of the centrepiece were replaced by attached columns raised on pedestals linked by a balustrade. The wallhead balustrade was removed, and Gibbs surrounds were added to the round-headed openings of the clock-tower. The interior was also extensively remodelled and most of the original fittings were replaced. The first floor, reached by a staircase to the rear, incorporated the council-chamber.

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