Cupar Burgh Chambers is a municipal structure in St Catherine Street in Cupar,

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...

, Scotland. The building, which was the meeting place of Cupar 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 a

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 ...

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 stood at The Cross and which dated back at least to the first half of the 15th century. The tolbooth incorporated prison cells on the ground floor and an assembly room on the first floor. King Charles II was entertained in the assembly room on his journey to Falkland in July 1650, and the aeronaut,

Vincenzo Lunardi Vincenzo Lunardi (11 January 1754 in Lucca – 1 August 1806 in Lisbon) was a pioneering Italian aeronaut, born in Lucca. Ascents in England Vincenzo Lunardi's family were of minor Tuscan nobility from Lucca, and his father had married late in li ...

, was carried there in triumph after crossing the

Firth of Forth The Firth of Forth () is the estuary, or firth, of several Scottish rivers including the River Forth. It meets the North Sea with Fife on the north coast and Lothian on the south. Name ''Firth'' is a cognate of ''fjord'', a Norse word meani ...

in a hot-air balloon, in December 1785. By the early 19th century, the tolbooth had become dilapidated and the provost, John Ferguson, proposed that the tolbooth and an adjacent property, Balgarvie House, be demolished as part of an initiative to create a new street: the south side of the new street would contain various civic buildings including, at the west end, the burgh chambers and, further to the east, the county buildings and the sheriff court. Demolition of the tolbooth took place one night in April 1815: the work caused some consternation because not all the burgh leaders had agreed to the proposal. The new building was designed by Robert Hutchison 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 for £150 and was completed in 1817. The design involved a semi-circular section with three bays facing onto The Cross; the first and second floors featured

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned window (architecture), paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double gla ...

s in each of the three bays. The whole section was surmounted by a lead-covered

dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

, an

octagon In geometry, an octagon (from the Greek ὀκτάγωνον ''oktágōnon'', "eight angles") is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, whi ...

al belfry with a domed roof and 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 ...

. On the north façade, while most of the ground floor was occupied by shops, there was a pend in the centre of the building and, to its right, a doorway with a

fanlight A fanlight is a form of lunette window, often semicircular or semi-elliptical in shape, with glazing bars or tracery sets radiating out like an open fan. It is placed over another window or a doorway, and is sometimes hinged to a transom. Th ...

, flanked by

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

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

, which gave access to the burgh chambers above. The mercat cross was relocated from Wemyss Hall Hill to a site just to the east of the burgh chambers as part of the celebrations for the

Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria was officially celebrated on 22 June 1897 to mark the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Queen Victoria's accession on 20 June 1837. Queen Victoria was the first British monarch ever to celebrate a Diamond ...

in 1897. The building continued to serve as the headquarters of the burgh council for much of the 20th century, but ceased to be the local seat of government after the enlarged North East Fife District Council was formed further along the road at the county buildings in 1975. The burgh chambers continued to be used as workspace by council staff, but after

Fife Council Fife Council is the local authority for the Fife area of Scotland and is the third largest Scottish council, with 75 elected council members. Councillors are generally elected every five years. At the 2012 election there were 78 councillors ele ...

became the

unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...

for the area in 1996, the building then fell vacant and, after significantly deteriorating, was placed on the

Buildings at Risk Register for Scotland The Buildings at Risk Register for Scotland records buildings of national architectural or historic interest which are considered to be under threat. The list is maintained by Historic Environment Scotland (HES). The register was established in 1 ...

. An extensive programme of works to refurbish the burgh chambers to a design by Arc Architects was carried out at a cost of £571,000 and completed in August 2018. The works, which were carried out under the management of Fife Historic Buildings Trust and financed by the Heritage Lottery Fund, Historic Environment Scotland and Fife Council, involved converting the first and second floors into apartments for tourists.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1817 Category B listed buildings in Fife City chambers and town halls in Scotland Cupar Government buildings with domes 1817 establishments in Scotland

History

See also

References