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Summary

Description

1777. 2-storey, 3-bay former Town Hall with 2-storey rear extension, 1854-5; both symmetrical and rectangular plan. Painted render; base course; dividing band course; extruding cills. Fascia reads 'Stranraer Museum'.

N (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: advanced central bay; pedimented doorpiece; 2-leaf timber door; fanlight; breaks eaves to form balustraded parapet; square tower surmounting; segmental topped first stage frames clockface and plaque; octagonal belfry; weathercock finialled spire. 2 modern windows to left at ground; single modern window to right; glass and timber door; letterbox fanlight to outer right. Single windows flank central bay at 1st floor.

E (CHURCH STREET) ELEVATION: 2 blocked windows at ground; 2 single windows at 1st floor in 1777 block to outer right. 4-bay blind arcaded ground floor to 1854-5 addition; 2-leaf timber door in penultimate bay to right. 3-bay pedimented centrepiece at 1st floor; plaque within pediment.

S (REAR) ELEVATION: 2 windows at ground to right; 3 infilled openings left at ground; 3 round-arched windows at 1st floor. Steps to metal door between ground and 1st floor to outer left.

Variety of glazing patterns, predominantly timber sash and case; modern picture glazing at ground to N elevation; 12-pane timber sash and case glazing to 1st floor; small pane glazing to windows at S and E elevations. Grey slate, piended roof; stone skews.

INTERIOR: modern museum interior fixtures obscures any period detailing.

Statement of Special Interest

The tolbooth was built to replace the tollbooth and tron demolished in the centre of George Street. Its new siting aimed to relieve congestion in the main thoroughfare. The 1855 rear addition was built to function as a court-room and corn exchange, but was superseded in 1873 by the new town hall and court house in Lewis Street. For a short period the building became a drill hall and armoury, then the Stranraer Athenaeum, and from 1879, with the founding of a Fire Brigade, it housed Stranraer?s earliest, manually operated fire-fighting machines. Plaque surmounting balustrade reads 'This clock was presented to the burgh by the late William Black Esq town clerk. Erected 1936.' Inscription beneath ship reads 'Tutissima Statio.'

References

Bibliography

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