Desk Based Assessment

Date February 2005

Event ID 1020454

Category Recording

Type Desk Based Assessment

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1020454

A desk-based assessment was undertaken by Headland Archaeology regarding HMP Perth in advance of refurbishment by the Scottish Prison Service. The main prison block – containing elements of the original Robert Reid building of 1810-12, as well as Thomas Brown’s work of 1840-42 and Robert Matheson’s work of 1852-57 – is a Category A Listed Building. There are also a number of Category B and C(S) Listed Buildings on the site. Map references suggest the site was agricultural in character until the construction of the Napoleonic prison in 1810. After two years of use as originally conceived, the buildings housed military equipment until 1833, and were then used as a granary until 1840 when the government began its conversion to the first general prison in Scotland. In the later 19th and 20th centuries there were considerable alterations to the historic layout of the site and its buildings.

Information from George F Geddes (Headland Archaeology) February 2005

Project code: PPJ04