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Summary

Description

William Williamson, 1902, altered 1997, Fife Council Architects. 2-storey and basement, 9-bay, Baroque police station, former Burgh Buildings with bell tower. Ashlar, channelled at ground, with squared and snecked rubble to sides and rear. Moulded base course on ashlar plinth, dividing course, mutuled eaves cornice and decorative lead blocking course. Segmental - and round - headed openings; keystoned, lugged windows with panelled aprons to 1st floor N, E, W (outer left) and tower; glazed oculus with voussoirs and stone mullions.

N (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: symmetrical. Wide steps with flanking dwarf walls and cast-iron lamp brackets lead to slightly advanced centre bay with full-height channelled, concave-moulded channelled pilasters and outer pilaster strips flanking round-headed door canopy with panelled soffits, corbelled on oversize decorative consoles. 2-part decorative cast-iron gate and vestibule with marble-lined walls and floor, timber cornice, decorative plasterwork frieze and dog-tooth cornice above; 2-leaf, part-glazed panelled timber door, raised semicircular fanlight and flanking fixed, part-glazed screens; all glass small-pane, coloured and decorative. Mutuled dividing cornice below open-pedimented, keystoned, lugged, segmental-headed window at 1st floor with decorative drip carving and anchoring scrolls, convex apron with cartouche, and decorative mouldings to heads of pilaster strips; mutuled, segmental pediment with cartouche in tympanum and flanking curvilinear parapet breaking eaves above. Small bellcote to centre above with square lead plinth and mutuled cornice giving way to open, octagonal Ionic columned stage, bellcast roof and decorative wrought-iron weathervane. Regular fenestration to flanking bays with channelled outer pilaster strips.

W (ST BRYCEDALE ROAD) ELEVATION: 11-bay (grouped 1-1-4-5). Bay to left of centre with tower, see below. Outer left bay channelled at ground and with channelled quoin strips. 2 windows to ground and further window to centre above below stone balustrade with flanking wallhead stacks. 4 slightly lower bays to centre with keystoned, segmental-headed openings at ground, 2 windows to centre, slightly advanced bay with window (converted from door) in moulded surround to right and door to left; 1st floor similarly advanced to right with window in deeply concave-moulded, segmental-headed opening with segmental dormerhead breaking eaves above; 3 bipartite windows to left. Lower 5 bays (extensions?) slightly recessed to outer right with corniced door to centre, ashlar strip above incorporating round-headed, keystoned window at 1st floor; regular fenestration to flanking bays (window to outer right at ground blinded).

TOWER: 5-stage bell tower. 1st and 2nd stages engaged to N and E. Channelled 1st stage with round-headed doorway with voussoirs and deep-set, 2-leaf panelled timber door with fanlight to S; glazed oculus, also voussoired, to W. Band course giving way to corniced 2nd stage with channelled quoins strips and windows to S and W. 3rd stage with small parapets flanked by coped balustrades and obelisks to outer angles; reduced, set-back blank courses above with diagonal buttresses supporting scroll mouldings of decorative 4th stage with keystoned, pilastered and pedimented opening to each face of bellcote; final, blank stage above with canted corners and domed cap.

S ELEVATION: asymmetrical fenestration with 2 advanced gables flanking small courtyard. Rear of principal (N) elevation with round-headed stair window and flanking narrow lights, and variety of other elements including rounded angle of high squared rubble wall ajoining to outer right.

E ELEVATION: 1st floor bay to outer right mirrors that to outer left W, with boundary wall abutting ashlar ground floor with window to left. Slightly lower bay immediately to left with double stair to door and large blind panel in open pediment above. Wall with round-arched cart entrance abutting to outer left, and altered cell block beyond to left.

12-pane glazing pattern in timber sash and case windows. Stair window margined and leaded with coloured glass. Grey slates. Cavetto-coped ashlar stacks with ashlar-coped skews and skewputts; cast-iron downpipes with decorative rainwater hoppers.

INTERIOR: decorative and plain cornices, keystoned arches, panelled dado and parquet floors. Raised centre round-headed timber door with coloured glass, timber staircase with turned balusters and square newels, tripartite window with coloured glass, Ionic columns and pilasters at stairhead. 1st floor vaulted hall (former Burgh Court) with boarded floor, panelled dado incorporating architraved, segmental-headed centrepiece with coat-of-arms at wallhead, and doors; decorative cornice with consoles and panelled, moulded ceiling with 2 circular air vents. Chief Superintendent's Office (former Provost's room with access to courtroom) with convex moulded angles to N wall, segmental-headed window with panelled soffits, marble fireplace and timber dado. Nearby washroom with original marble washbasins, corniced timber toilet cubicle with timber cistern 'Patrick Knox, Plumber, Edinburgh', dado rail over decorative glazed tiles.

GATEPIERS AND BOUNDARY WALLS: corniced, flat-coped ashlar gatepiers with medallions to N; similar piers without medallions to W. Quadrant wall with string course and flanking pedestrian entrances to NE (see Notes). Low and high saddleback-coped ashlar, and semi-circular-coped rubble boundary walls.

Statement of Special Interest

Built with stone from Grange Quarries, Burntisland to the design of William Williamson whose competition entry gained 3rd place after J N Scott and A Lorne Campbell of Edinburgh, and Alex Cullen of Hamilton. A report in the Fife Free Press mentions that the unexecuted original proposal included a fire station and chief constable's house, and continues "the court room is to be very large so as to afford room for Licensing Courts as well as Bailie Courts". The high quadrant walls positioned to the NE, were erected "so that the cells and airing yards would be completely obscured from the view of passengers" (FFP). The foundation stone was laid on a day of celebration in Kirkcaldy which also saw the opening of the Victoria Viaduct and commencement of work on the Victoria Road Electricity Generating Station (both listed separately). The police station was re-opened by John W McDougall JP, Convenor of Fife Council, on 26 May 1998 after extensive internal alteration to the cell block which was formerly a 2-storey, butterfly-plan with exercise yards and open cast-iron stair. The original female cells have been retained with new doors and plumbing.

References

Bibliography

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