Kirkintilloch Town Hall is a municipal building in Union Street in
Kirkintilloch
Kirkintilloch (; sco, Kirkintulloch; gd, Cair Cheann Tulaich) is a town and former barony burgh in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland. It lies on the Forth and Clyde Canal and on the south side of Strathkelvin, about northeast of central Glasgow. ...
,
East Dunbartonshire
East Dunbartonshire ( sco, Aest Dunbartanshire; gd, Siorrachd Dhùn Bhreatainn an Ear) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the north of Glasgow and contains many of the affluent areas to the north of the city, including Bear ...
,
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 ...
.
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
Early history
The current building was commissioned to replace the old
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 ...
in West High Street which had been completed in 1815.
After rapid industrial expansion and population growth in the local area, as well as a deterioration in the condition of the tolbooth,
[ civic leaders decided to procure a purpose-built town hall: the site they selected in Union Street had previously been occupied by a school.
The new building was designed by Walker and Ramsay of ]Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
in the classical style
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 works of the Roman architect V ...
.[ Paid for by public subscription, it cost £11,000 to build and opened in July 1906.]frieze
In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...
and cornice
In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...
above; there were six tall narrow windows on the first floor.[ The building was renovated in 1931 and extended in 1959.][
]
Closure and redevelopment
The building was closed by East Dunbartonshire Council on 30 June 2004, largely due to the anticipated expense of restoring a building constructed of notoriously crumbling soft sandstone. In response, the Kirkintilloch Town Hall Preservation Trust was established as a registered charity to preserve the Hall and restore it for community use. In November 2010 rats were sighted inside the building and concerns were expressed that the hall could be infested with them. After the local newspaper asked East Dunbartonshire Council to see inside the building, the council turned down the request on the grounds of health and safety. Campsie and Kirkintilloch North councillor Charles Kennedy said that this showed how much the premises had deteriorated and called for their demolition.
In December 2011 the Kirkintilloch Herald's request for access was granted and the paper reported on the building's condition; parts of the ceiling on one side of the hall had fallen onto the floor and there was debris lying all around, considerable dampness and crumbling paintwork. East Dunbartonshire Council stated that extensive dry rot and general fabric deterioration were the main problems with the Hall.
In the early summer of 2016 work began on the redevelopment of the hall into a centre for heritage, arts and culture. In July 2016, and in the course of works being done as part of the redevelopment, a number of Roman items were discovered in the building's car park, including pottery and a nail. The hall was officially reopened in November 2018.
See also
* List of listed buildings in Kirkintilloch
References
{{reflist
Category B listed buildings in East Dunbartonshire
Kirkintilloch
City chambers and town halls in Scotland
Government buildings completed in 1906
Listed government buildings in Scotland