Brechin Town House is a municipal structure in the High Street in

Brechin Brechin (; gd, Breichin) is a city and former Royal burgh in Angus, Scotland. Traditionally Brechin was described as a city because of its cathedral and its status as the seat of a pre-Reformation Roman Catholic diocese (which continues today ...

Angus Angus may refer to: Media * ''Angus'' (film), a 1995 film * ''Angus Og'' (comics), in the ''Daily Record'' Places Australia * Angus, New South Wales Canada * Angus, Ontario, a community in Essa, Ontario * East Angus, Quebec Scotland * An ...

, Scotland. The structure, which is now used as a museum, 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 a

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 erected on the current site and dated back at least to the first half of the 15th century. The ground floor was used as a prison and the first floor accommodated the burgh council chamber: it was replaced by a town house in the late 17th century. It was at the mercat cross in front of this building that

James Maule, 4th Earl of Panmure James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

proclaimed

James Francis Edward Stuart James Francis Edward Stuart (10 June 16881 January 1766), nicknamed the Old Pretender by Whigs, was the son of King James II and VII of England, Scotland and Ireland, and his second wife, Mary of Modena. He was Prince of Wales from ...

, known as the "Old Pretender", as King James VIII during the

Jacobite rising of 1715 The Jacobite rising of 1715 ( gd, Bliadhna Sheumais ; or 'the Fifteen') was the attempt by James Edward Stuart (the Old Pretender) to regain the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland for the exiled Stuarts The House of Stuart, ori ...

. By the 1780s, the old town house had become dilapidated, and the burgh council decided to demolish it and build a new town house, financed by

public subscription Subscription refers to the process of investors signing up and committing to invest in a financial instrument, before the actual closing of the purchase. The term comes from the Latin word ''subscribere''. Historical Praenumeration An early form ...

, on the same site: major contributors included the

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 ...

Sir David Carnegie, 4th Baronet Sir David Carnegie of Pitarrow, 4th Baronet FRS FRSE (22 November 1753 – 25 May 1805) was a Scottish politician and (but for the attainder of the 5th Earl) 7th Earl of Southesk, 7th Baron Carnegie of Kinnaird and 7th Baron Carnegie, of Kinnai ...

. Construction works on the new building started in spring 1789. It was designed in the

Italianate style The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

, built by a local contractor, George Scott, in

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

at a cost of £629 and was completed in 1790. The building cost more than was originally budgeted and the local guild was given naming rights over the building, which became known as the "Guildhall of Brechin", in return for paying for the extra cost. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with a single large bay facing onto the High Street; it originally featured three square headed windows on the ground floor and a

Venetian window A Venetian window (also known as a Serlian window) is a large tripartite window which is a key element in Palladian architecture. Although Sebastiano Serlio (1475–1554) did not invent it, the window features largely in the work of the Italian a ...

on the first floor. The structure was surmounted by a

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 ...

with a clock in the tympanum. At roof level there was a rectangular

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, from ...

with

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 an

ogee An ogee ( ) is the name given to objects, elements, and curves—often seen in architecture and building trades—that have been variously described as serpentine-, extended S-, or sigmoid-shaped. Ogees consist of a "double curve", the combinatio ...

-shaped roof. Internally, the principal room was the assembly hall which featured a

coved ceiling A coved ceiling is a ceiling that has had the visual appearance of the point where the ceiling meets the walls improved by the addition of coving. It can also refer to a ceiling, like in a Mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid ...

and

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 designed in the style of William Adam. There were prison cells on the ground floor but, after a more substantial prison was completed in Southesk Street in 1844, the cells were converted for use as offices for the local police force. The building continued to serve as the headquarters of the borough council for the rest of the 19th century but ceased to be the local seat of government when the municipal offices were established in Bank Street in 1900. The building was subsequently converted for retail use with a modern shopfront being installed in the early 20th century: by the start of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

the building was operating as a bakery and confectionery shop. A small museum, which brought together local history artefacts previously held in the local mechanics' institute and in the local library, was established in the town house in 2003. Items on display include a model of the town in 1820 and

diorama A diorama is a replica of a scene, typically a three-dimensional full-size or miniature model, sometimes enclosed in a glass showcase for a museum. Dioramas are often built by hobbyists as part of related hobbies such as military vehicle mode ...

s depicting a priest in

Brechin Cathedral Brechin Cathedral dates from the 13th century. As a congregation of the Church of Scotland, which is Presbyterian, the church is not technically a cathedral, in spite of its name. It is in the Pointed style, but suffered maltreatment in 1806 at ...

and a petty criminal in one of the town house cells.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1790 City chambers and town halls in Scotland Category B listed buildings in Angus, Scotland Brechin

History

See also

References