Hamilton Townhouse is a building in Cadzow Street in

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

South Lanarkshire gd, Siorrachd Lannraig a Deas , image_skyline = , image_flag = , image_shield = Arms_slanarkshire.jpg , image_blank_emblem = Slanarks.jpg , blank_emblem_type = Council logo , image_map ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, which is operated by

South Lanarkshire Council South Lanarkshire Council ( gd, Comhairle Siorrachd Lannraig a Deas) is the unitary authority serving the South Lanarkshire council area in Scotland. The council has its headquarters in Hamilton, has 16,000 employees, and a budget of almost £1b ...

. It contains both the town's main public hall (formerly known as Hamilton Town Hall) and public library, as well as various council departments including licensing and community learning. It 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 town house in Hamilton, which contained the council chamber, the courthouse and the jail, was built adjoining the old tolbooth at the junction of Castle Street and Palace Grounds Road and was completed in 1798. The council considered making alterations to the ageing tolbooth and town house complex in 1860, but in the event decided to augment their facilities with a new public hall, known as the "town hall" at New Cross (now the corner of Duke Street and Quarry Street) in 1861. After the condition of the town hall at New Cross also deteriorated, civic leaders decided to procure a purpose-built complex which combined the functions of council chamber and public hall in one place: the site they selected was open land at the corner of Cadzow Street and Lower Auchingramomt Road. The new building, although appearing to be one, was actually built in stages over a 21-year period. The library section of the complex was designed by Alexander Cullen (1856–1911) and opened by

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...

in 1907. The adjacent townhouse offices were designed by Cullen Lochhead and Brown and officially opened by

King George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Que ...

on 9 July 1914. The town hall was also designed by Cullen Lochhead and Brown and completed in 1928. The design involved a symmetrical frontage with seventeen bays facing Cadzow Street with the end bays, each with domed

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 towers, projecting forward; the central section featured a wide doorway 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 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 on the ground floor; there was a

wrought-iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a wood-like "grain" t ...

balcony and a tall round-headed window flanked by

Ionic order The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite or ...

pilasters on the first floor with a segmental

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 ...

above containing a carved

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...

. Internally, the principal room was the main public hall with seating capacity for 700 people. The townhouse was the seat of local government for the

burgh A burgh is an autonomous municipal corporation in Scotland and Northern England, usually a city, town, or toun in Scots. This type of administrative division existed from the 12th century, when King David I created the first royal burghs. Burg ...

of Hamilton and the successor district of same name while the

Lanark County Buildings The Lanark County Buildings, also referred to as the South Lanarkshire Council Headquarters, is a local government facility in Hamilton, Scotland. History Originally the headquarters of Lanark County Council (which had previously been based at ...

nearby in Almada Street served the wider

Lanarkshire Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark ( gd, Siorrachd Lannraig; sco, Lanrikshire), is a historic county, lieutenancy area and registration county in the central Lowlands of Scotland. Lanarkshire is the most populous county in Scotlan ...

County, followed by the Lanark sub-region under

Strathclyde Strathclyde ( in Gaelic, meaning "strath (valley) of the River Clyde") was one of nine former local government regions of Scotland created in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and abolished in 1996 by the Local Government et ...

following a reorganisation of administrative structures across the country in 1975. In 1996, new single-level

council areas of Scotland For local government purposes, Scotland is divided into 32 areas designated as "council areas" ( gd, comhairlean), which are all governed by single-tier authorities designated as "councils". They have the option under the Local Government (Ga ...

were created to provide services previously controlled by regions and districts, and it was the County Buildings that became the headquarters for the new local body,

. In 2002, each section of the townhouse was closed to enable the building to undergo a regeneration project, costing £9 million, to proceed. This was required to bring the internal facilities to current standards and restore the crumbling stone exterior of the building. The restored facility was made available to the public in August 2004 and an official opening by

Princess Anne Anne, Princess Royal (Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise; born 15 August 1950), is a member of the British royal family. She is the second child and only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and the only sister of K ...

took place in September 2004. The library has won two awards: the "Architect Meets Practicality Award" for libraries of significant architectural interest that are practical and user-friendly and the "Mary Finch Accessibility Award" for the library which most addresses access issues from physical through to cultural barriers. The restoration was also recognised with a

Scottish Civic Trust Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

commendation.

Notes

{{Libraries in Scotland Carnegie libraries in Scotland Theatres in Scotland Category A listed buildings in South Lanarkshire Buildings and structures in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire Listed library buildings in Scotland Library buildings completed in 1907 Government buildings completed in 1928 1907 establishments in Scotland City chambers and town halls in Scotland Listed government buildings in Scotland

History

See also

Notes

Notes