Description
Original design by David Bryce, 1873; began building (?
with modifications) after 1884. Town hall with extravagant
Scots Baronial ornament, tall square corner tower with
conical-roofed bartizans, balustrades, clocks, steep
slate roof with ogee-cupola top. Red ashlar, mostly stugged
and snecked, polished dressings. Both main elevations
composed with entrance bay beside tower (main entrance to
High Street ornately detailed, moulded round-arched
doorway with recessed columns and with parapet) wide gabled
bay beyond, that to Bridge Street with asymmetrical corbel
tables, that to High Street with bartizans, large mullioned
and transomed 1st floor window, 2 shouldered wide panels at
ground with decorative 3-light windows. Slated roofs. Tall
4-bay wing to Bridge Street may not be part of original
composition; (perhaps the hall of 1889) it has mullioned and
transomed 1st floor windows and advanced outer gable.
Interior of high quality with coffered plaster ceilings,
balustraded main stair with arcaded gallery over.
Statement of Special Interest
Listed A for quality of tower.
OFFICIAL GUIDE, n.d., in Ewart Library states (p.20) that
the hall was built to commemorate Queen Victoria's jubilee,
and that its memorial stone was laid 22 January 1889.