Arbroath Town House is a municipal building in the High Street,

Arbroath Arbroath () or Aberbrothock ( gd, Obar Bhrothaig ) is a former royal burgh and the largest town in the council area of Angus, Scotland, with a population of 23,902. It lies on the North Sea coast some ENE of Dundee and SSW of Aberdeen. The ...

, Scotland. The town house, which was the headquarters of Arbroath Burgh Council, is a Category B

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

The first municipal building in the town was the

tolbooth A tolbooth or town house was the main municipal building of a Scottish burgh, from medieval times until the 19th century. The tolbooth usually provided a council meeting chamber, a court house and a jail. The tolbooth was one of three essen ...

which was built on the east side of the High Street using stones from Arbroath Abbey in 1686. It was rebuilt, after becoming dilapidated, in 1779. In the early 19th century, in the context of the growing importance of the town as a coastal port, civic leaders decided to procure a town house for the

royal burgh A royal burgh () was a type of Scottish burgh which had been founded by, or subsequently granted, a royal charter. Although abolished by law in 1975, the term is still used by many former royal burghs. Most royal burghs were either created by ...

on the west side of the High Street. Work started on the new building in 1803. It was designed by a local architect, David Logan, in the neoclassical style, built in

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

stone and completed in 1808. It was altered and extended to the rear to a design by David Smith of

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

in 1844. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with three bays facing onto the High Street; the central bay, which slightly projected forward, featured a doorway flanked by

brackets A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or 'r ...

supporting a

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

; there was a tri-part round headed window on the first floor flanked by paired

Doric order The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of col ...

columns supporting a frieze containing carved rosettes with a

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...

above containing a clock decorated with festoons. Internally, the principal rooms were the great hall, the town clerk's office and the burgh chamber which could also be used for court hearings. A new gaol, a gaoler's house and a police station were erected behind the town house and formed part of the complex. The magistrates held hearings once a week and cells were provided for holding prisoners. In 1900 the magistrates moved to No. 78 High Street allowing the whole of the building to be used for municipal purposes. Following further population growth, largely related to the

jute Jute is a long, soft, shiny bast fiber that can be spun into coarse, strong threads. It is produced from flowering plants in the genus ''Corchorus'', which is in the mallow family Malvaceae. The primary source of the fiber is ''Corchorus olit ...

and sailcloth industries, the area became a large burgh with the town house as its headquarters in 1936. The building continued to serve as the headquarters of the burgh council, but ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged

Angus District Council Angus ( sco, Angus; gd, Aonghas) is one of the 32 Local government in Scotland, local government council areas of Scotland, a registration county and a Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area. The council area borders Aberdeenshire, Du ...

was formed in 1975. In 1977 the

Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service , type = , seal = , logo = 250px , logo_caption = , formed = , jurisdiction = Scotland , headquarters = Saughton House, Broomhouse Drive, Edinburgh EH11 3XD , employees = 1,374 , budget = £129.3 million (2015-2016) , chief1_name = Lord ...

decided that No. 78 High Street was no longer suitable for judicial use and moved back into the town house, converting the burgh chamber into a courtroom. In 2007 the significance of the town house was recognised by the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

when it ruled that, for

Arbroath smokie The Arbroath smokie is a type of smoked haddock, and is a speciality of the town of Arbroath in Angus, Scotland. History The Arbroath smokie is said to have originated in the small fishing village of Auchmithie, three miles northeast of A ...

s to have "protected status", they must be produced within "a coastal corridor with an inland boundary 8 kilometres radius from Arbroath Town House". After all court hearings moved to Forfar in May 2014, the building closed as a courthouse. The Arbroath Court House Community Trust, which was formed at the time of the closure, acquired the building for a nominal sum in December 2020 and outlined its proposals for converting the building into a community hub in May 2021.

References

{{Reflist Government buildings completed in 1808

Arbroath Category B listed buildings in Angus, Scotland

History

See also

References