Kelso Town Hall is a municipal building in The Square, Kelso, Scotland. The building, which was the headquarters of Kelso 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 Kelso 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 dated back to the 1670s. It had a tall tower on the southwest side and, like other buildings in Kelso, it was originally thatched and was almost certainly badly damaged in the fire which destroyed much of the town in 1684. By the early 19th century the tolbooth was in a ruinous condition and the burgh leaders initiated a campaign 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 ...

to raise money for its replacement, for which the 5th Duke of Roxburghe, whose seat was at

Floors Castle Floors Castle, in Roxburghshire, south-east Scotland, is the seat of the Duke of Roxburghe. Despite its name it is an estate house rather than a fortress. It was built in the 1720s by the architect William Adam for Duke John, possibly incorporat ...

, provided the site and donated the majority of the money. The foundation stone for the new building was laid by the 5th Duke of Roxburghe on 20 March 1816. It was designed 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 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 later in the year. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto The Square; the ground floor was originally open, so that markets could be held, with an assembly room on the first floor. On the first floor elevation, there was an

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 ...

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

which slightly projected forward and was surmounted by 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 ...

and a

modillion A modillion is an ornate bracket, more horizontal in shape and less imposing than a corbel. They are often seen underneath a cornice which it helps to support. Modillions are more elaborate than dentils (literally translated as small teeth). All ...

ed pediment and, at roof level, there was a

balustrade A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its con ...

and large

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 ...

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 a

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 ...

. A clock, donated by a London-based clockmaker, Alexander Purvis, was added to the cupola in 1841. In the mid-19th century there was a daily market for "fish, flesh and cabbage". The 8th Duke of Roxburghe transferred ownership of the building to the burgh council in 1902, and it was re-modelled by John Daniel Swanston and William Syme in the Baroque Revival style at a cost of £3,000 between 1902 and 1908. The remodelling works included the enclosure of the ground floor and the creation of a central round headed doorway flanked by banded

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 an open

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 the burgh

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 ...

in the tympanum, as well as the elevation of the columns of the first floor portico onto

pedestal A pedestal (from French ''piédestal'', Italian ''piedistallo'' 'foot of a stall') or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In ci ...

s and their detachment from the walls, and the removal of the roof level balustrade. The town hall 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 when the enlarged Roxburgh District Council was formed at

Hawick Hawick ( ; sco, Haaick; gd, Hamhaig) is a town in the Scottish Borders council area and historic county of Roxburghshire in the east Southern Uplands of Scotland. It is south-west of Jedburgh and south-south-east of Selkirk. It is one of ...

in 1975. It instead became the meeting place of Kelso Community Council; a programme of refurbishment works was completed in 1996 and the ground floor became occupied by the local registry office and the local team from Visit Scotland. A piece of public art, sculpted by Jake Harvey and entitled the "Kelsae Stane", was unveiled in front of the town hall in July 2014, and the River Tweed Salmond Fishing Museum, featuring a salmon caught by the 7th Earl of Home in 1735, was established in the town hall in September 2020.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1816 City chambers and town halls in Scotland Category B listed buildings in the Scottish Borders Kelso, Scottish Borders

History

See also

References