Recording Your Heritage Online
Event ID 565687
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Recording Your Heritage Online
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/565687
Town House, 1668, John Smith
No other town in Scotland possesses such an imposing civic stage-set. Oliver Cromwell had demolished Linlithgow's old tolbooth with its gigantic campanile in 1650, in an attempt to improve the palace's defences. This splendidly alert successor, one of the most sophisticated burgh buildings of its period in Scotland, is three-storey, with regular pedimented windows, and the six-stage balustraded tower to the rear, which once carried a belfry as at Stirling Tolbooth (see Stirling and the Trossachs in this series). Second-floor room within boasts original massive fireplaces with carved overmantels and decorative swags. In 1810, the stone steps were replaced by a delicate iron loggia. After a fire in 1847, much rebuilt by Thomas Brown. The 1857 clock, by MacKenzie & Moncur, was the first turret clock in Scotland to be constructed on the same principles as that in Westminster Palace. In 1907, William Scott replaced the iron loggia with the magnificent double staircase. Designs for conversion to community arts use prepared by Malcolm Fraser Architects, 2007. The 1905 Masonic Halls, Market Lane, William Scott, has a handsome classical door beneath a masonic emblem.
Taken from "West Lothian: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Stuart Eydmann, Richard Jaques and Charles McKean, 2008. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk
