Publication Account
Date 1996
Event ID 1018571
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1018571
The town hall of 1821-2 is two-storeyed and rectangular on plan, measuring some 13.7m across its main (SW) front by 7.9m in width. It incorporates elements of its predecessor and of the priory buildings. The rear (NE) wall, which is a survival of the refectory and continuous with the 'Great House' to the NW, includes an oriel-window with moulded surround. The other two larger windows in this wall appear to have been inserted, but a small low-level opening at the NW end may be original. The SE gable may also incorporate masonry from the earlier tolbooth, which rose to the same height as the 'Great House' and had a crow-stepped SE gable.
The SW front, which is set forward from the line of its predecessor, is constructed of roughly-coursed' ashlar, with polished and raised quoins and margins. Access to the ground floor is by a round-headed doorway set NW of centre, and the first floor is reached by an original forestair, with late 19th century iron balusters and porch, at the NW end of the front. The windows are round-headed and, with the exception of a small ground-floor window, have intersecting curved glazing bars Built upside-down into the top of the SE gable there is a re-used armorial panel bearing the arms of James Kennedy, Bishop of St Andrews (d.1465).
Internally, the ground floor has been extensively modernised in the 1960s and 1970s and it possesses few notable features. About half of its area, probably to the NW, was occupied by a criminal cell and two debtors' rooms until 1847 when it was converted to police accommodation. The first floor appears to be largely unaltered from its construction in the 1820s. At the NW gable there is a landing which retains a remarkable Regency chimney piece, whose stone surround encloses a castiron inset having Egyptian 'mummy' figures to each side, surmounted by lion-heads set in roundels within projecting squares; along the lintel of this inset there is a design incorporating fasces and twin-headed axes.
The former council-room, which was also used for courts, is lit by two large windows in the SW front. It has a coombed ceiling and at the NW end there is a small 'orchestra or music gallery' with turned wooden balusters, set above a curved recess and below a slightly-pointed barrel-vault. A large timber chirnneyiece in the SE wall has been painted with nautical motifs including a figure of Neptune in the central panel. Painted in grisaille above this chirnneypiece there is a very elaborate version of the burgh arms, incorporating thistles and the royal arms of Scotland. A small version of the burgh arms above a thistle-and-rose border is painted in colour in the central panel of the gallery. The ceiling has a central rose comprising long radiating acanthus-leaves framed with crossed sprigs. There are doors in each corner of the end walls of the room, and these and the shutters have fielded panels of Regency type. The roof-structure, which has been partly renewed, is of collar-rafter form, but with an A-frame employed every sixth beam, marked by raised tie-beams.
HISTORY
A petition by local residents in June 1821 protested that the condition of the town-house rendered it dangerous to neighbouring property and to passers-by. One of the petitioners, James Horsburgh, was asked to prepare a plan and elevation for a new building, observing 'the utmost economy', and an estimate of £205 by David Brown, mason in Pittenweem, was accepted. The specification required as much as possible of the old materials to be re-used, and the two large windows in the new council-room were to be similar in size and shape to the old ones, so that the existing frames could be used. Other timberwork and a fireplace-surround from the old council-room were to be used in the debtors' rooms. The work was completed in March 1822.
Information from ‘Tolbooths and Town-Houses: Civic Architecture in Scotland to 1833’ (1996).
