Ayr Town Hall is a municipal building in New Bridge Street,

Ayr Ayr (; sco, Ayr; gd, Inbhir Àir, "Mouth of the River Ayr") is a town situated on the southwest coast of Scotland. It is the administrative centre of the South Ayrshire council area and the historic county town of Ayrshire. With a population ...

, Scotland. The town hall, which was the headquarters of Ayr Burgh Council, is a Category A

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 Ayr, an old tollbooth which was erected in the middle of the road at the junction of Sandgate and New Bridge Street, was of

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

origin. The building, which incorporated a council chamber, a courtroom and a prison, was rebuilt in 1575 and augmented by a belfry in 1615 and by a steeple in 1726. It was approached on the north side by use of a flight of nineteen steps. After becoming dilapidated, the steeple was removed in 1823 and the building was demolished completely in 1825. In the late 1820s, civic leaders decided to replace the tolbooth with a new town hall on a site occupied by the old assembly rooms, a short distance to the north east of the old tolbooth. The new building was designed by Thomas Hamilton in the

neoclassical style Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The pr ...

, built by Archibald Johnston 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 at a cost of £9,965 and was completed in November 1830. The original design involved an asymmetrical main frontage with six bays facing onto New Bridge Street; the third bay from the left, which slightly projected forward, featured a porch with a triangular

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

on the ground floor, a round headed window on the first floor flanked by giant

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s 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 ...

with

triglyph Triglyph is an architectural term for the vertically channeled tablets of the Doric frieze in classical architecture, so called because of the angular channels in them. The rectangular recessed spaces between the triglyphs on a Doric frieze are ...

s and a steeple. The steeple was structured in multiple stages which included a clock, a belfry modelled on the

Tower of the Winds The Tower of the Winds or the Horologion of Andronikos Kyrrhestes is an octagonal Pentelic marble clocktower in the Roman Agora in Athens that functioned as a ''horologion'' or "timepiece". It is considered the world's first meteorological stati ...

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

and a

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are ...

with a

weather vane A wind vane, weather vane, or weathercock is an instrument used for showing the direction of the wind. It is typically used as an architectural ornament to the highest point of a building. The word ''vane'' comes from the Old English word , m ...

. The building, measured to the top of the spire, was high. At that time the principal room was the main assembly hall. The building was extended to the south by three extra bays with a new block, which projected forward as a

pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings: * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

and was built to a design by James Sellars of Campbell Douglas and Sellars, in 1881. Following the expansion, as well as the main assembly hall, the principal rooms included a council chamber, a committee room and a town clerk's office. Following a major fire, the interior was remodelled again to a design by J. Kennedy Hunter in 1901. Improvements included a concert organ, designed and manufactured by

Lewis & Co Lewis and Company was a firm of organ builders founded by Thomas Christopher Lewis (1833–1915), one of the leading organ builders of late 19th Century Britain. Born in London in 1833, the son of Thomas Archdeacon Lewis (1780–1862), a secre ...

, which was installed in the main assembly hall in 1904. The building continued to serve as the headquarters of Ayr Burgh Council for much of the 20th century but ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged Kyle and Carrick District Council was formed at the County Buildings in Wellington Square in 1975. The concert organ was refurbished in 2008, enabling the venue to resume hosting the

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (BBC SSO) is a Scottish broadcasting symphony orchestra based in Glasgow. One of five full-time orchestras maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), it is the oldest full-time professional rad ...

and other musical ensembles. A statue of the Indian political leader,

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

, by the sculptor, Guatam Pal, was presented by the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

and unveiled inside the town hall on 14 September 2019. Works of art in the town hall include a portrait by John Stevens of the former local

member of parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

Lord Patrick Crichton-Stuart Lord Patrick James Herbert Crichton-Stuart (25 August 1794 – 7 September 1859), known as the Hon. Patrick Stuart until 1817, was a British politician. Born Patrick Stuart, he was the second son of John Stuart, Lord Mount Stuart, eldest son ...

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1830

Buildings and structures in Ayr Category A listed buildings in South Ayrshire Clock towers in the United Kingdom

History

See also

References