Haddington Town House is a municipal structure in Court Street,

Haddington, East Lothian The Royal Burgh of Haddington ( sco, Haidintoun, gd, Baile Adainn) is a town in East Lothian, Scotland. It is the main administrative, cultural and geographical centre for East Lothian. It lies about east of Edinburgh. The name Haddington is ...

, Scotland. The structure, which is the meeting place of

East Lothian Council East Lothian Council is one of the 32 local government councils in Scotland covering the East Lothian area. Since the last boundary changes in 2017, 22 councillors have been elected from 6 wards. History East Lothian District Council had been ...

, 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 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 dated back to the early 15th century. It incorporated a

drawbridge A drawbridge or draw-bridge is a type of moveable bridge typically at the entrance to a castle or tower surrounded by a moat. In some forms of English, including American English, the word ''drawbridge'' commonly refers to all types of moveable ...

, a gaol for petty criminals 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 ...

. The bell in the tollbooth was rung at 7am and 10pm every day from the mid-16th century. By the 1730s, the building was in a dilapidated condition and meetings were transferred to the local library while the burgh leaders procured a new building. Construction of the new building started in 1742. It was designed by William Adam in the

Scottish baronial style Scottish baronial or Scots baronial is an architectural style of 19th century Gothic Revival which revived the forms and ornaments of historical architecture of Scotland in the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period. Reminiscent of Scot ...

, 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 was completed in 1745. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage facing west along Court Street; it was initially arcaded on the ground floor so that markets could be held, with an assembly room on the first floor. At the west end there were

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 on the first floor supporting 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 ...

: after the markets had been abandoned, the ground floor was enclosed, a three-light segmental window was installed on the ground floor and, in 1788, 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 ...

was added on the first floor. At the east end, there was a clock tower with a belfry to which a spire, designed by

James Gillespie Graham James Gillespie Graham (11 June 1776 – 11 March 1855) was a Scottish architect, prominent in the early 19th century. Life Graham was born in Dunblane on 11 June 1776. He was the son of Malcolm Gillespie, a solicitor. He was christened as J ...

, was added in the 1831. Internally, the principal rooms were the cells for prisoners on the ground floor and the accommodation for the sheriff's court and the burgh council on the first floor. In 1930, following the

Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929 The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929 (19 & 20 Geo 5 c. 25) reorganised local government in Scotland from 1930, introducing joint county councils, large and small burghs and district councils. The Act also abolished the Scottish poor law syst ...

, Haddington was reclassified as a small burgh, ceding many of its functions to East Lothian County Council, as the town was not considered large enough to run its own services efficiently. The town council of the burgh continued to use the town house as its meeting place. Following significant deterioration in the structure of the building, which led civic leaders to consider demolition as an option, the building was extensively refurbished to a design by Peter Whitson in the mid-1950s.

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

, accompanied by the

Duke of Edinburgh Duke of Edinburgh, named after the city of Edinburgh in Scotland, was a substantive title that has been created three times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not produc ...

, visited the town hall to inspect the progress before undertaking a tour of the town on 7 July 1956. The building was officially re-opened by Princess Mary later in the year. It continued to serve as the headquarters of the town council for much of the 20th century, and remained the meeting place of the successor East Lothian District Council created in 1975 and then the current

created in 1996. Works of art in the town house include a painting by the locally-born artist,

William George Gillies Sir William George Gillies (1898–1973) was a renowned Scottish landscape and still life painter. He is often referred to simply as W. G. Gillies. Life Gillies was born in Haddington, East Lothian. He had just enrolled at the Edinburgh C ...

, of a Midlothian landscape, a painting by William Darling McKay, who was born in Gifford, of cattle being driven on the salt marshes, and a painting by

Patrick Adam Patrick William Adam RSA (1852–1929) was a Scottish artist. He was a joint founder of the artistic group the Society of Eight. He is mainly remembered for his landscapes and interiors. Life He was born on 12 October 1852 at 9 Brandon Str ...

, who was born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, of Gullane Links. There is also a painting by

William Stewart MacGeorge William Stewart MacGeorge (1861–1931) was a Scottish artist associated with the Kirkcudbright School. Born in Castle Douglas, lived at 120 King St. He attended the Royal Institution Art School in Edinburgh before studying under Charles ...

, who was born in

Castle Douglas Castle Douglas ( gd, Caisteal Dhùghlais) is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It lies in the lieutenancy area of Kirkcudbrightshire, in the eastern part of Galloway, between the towns of Dalbeattie and Gatehouse of Fleet. It is in the ...

, of a river with trees and a farm.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1745 City chambers and town halls in Scotland Haddington, East Lothian Category A listed buildings in East Lothian William Adam buildings Clock towers in the United Kingdom

History

See also

References