Paisley Sheriff Court is a municipal structure in St James Street,

Paisley, Renfrewshire Paisley ( ; sco, Paisley, gd, Pàislig ) is a large town situated in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. Located north of the Gleniffer Braes, the town borders the city of Glasgow to the east, and straddles the banks of the White Cart Wate ...

, Scotland. The complex, which was the headquarters of Renfrewshire County Council and is currently used as a courthouse, 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

Court hearings were originally been held in the

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 Hairst Street in

Renfrew Renfrew (; sco, Renfrew; gd, Rinn Friù) is a town west of Glasgow in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. It is the historic county town of Renfrewshire. Called the "Cradle of the Royal Stewarts" for its early link with Scotland's former ...

but were transferred to the tolbooth at the junction of High Street and Moss Street in Paisley in the mid-16th century. The tolbooth, which was rebuilt in 1757 and then demolished in 1821, was replaced by the old County Buildings on the east side of County Square. This was a

castellated A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interva ...

building, built at a cost of £28,000, which was completed in 1820. By the 1880s the building in County Square was deemed too small and it was decided to erect a new courthouse on the north side of St James Street. The new building was designed by William Clarke and George Bell 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 in 1885. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of seven bays facing onto St James Street with the end bays projected forward. The central section of five bays featured a

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 formed the centrepiece of a

colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or curv ...

with

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 ...

and 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 ...

. On the first floor, the central section was fenestrated by a double

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 ...

flanked by single sash windows. The outer bays were fenestrated by tripartite widows on both floors with the first floor windows flanked by pairs of

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 ...

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. All the windows on the first floor were surmounted by

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 ...

s supported by

brackets A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or 'r ...

. At roof level, there was an entablature, a cornice, a

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...

and a series of

urn An urn is a vase, often with a cover, with a typically narrowed neck above a rounded body and a footed pedestal. Describing a vessel as an "urn", as opposed to a vase or other terms, generally reflects its use rather than any particular shape or ...

s. Internally, the principal room was the courtroom at the rear of the building. Following the implementation of the

Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 (52 & 53 Vict. c. 50) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which was passed on 26 August 1889. The main effect of the act was to establish elected county councils in Scotland. In this it foll ...

, which established county councils in every county, the new county leaders needed to identify offices for Renfrewshire County Council. The complex was therefore extended to the east by a new seven bay extension designed by George Bell, built in ashlar stone and completed in 1890. The extension became known as "County Buildings". The left-hand section of three bays featured a porch formed by Doric order columns supporting an entablature and a parapet. The right-hand section of four bays featured, in the first three bays, a full-height portico with first-floor Ionic columns supporting a pediment. At the back of the portico was a carved frieze sculpted by

F. W. Pomeroy Frederick William Pomeroy (9 October 1856 – 26 May 1924) was a prolific British sculptor of architectural and monumental works. He became a leading sculptor in the New Sculpture movement, a group distinguished by a stylistic turn towards Natu ...

and depicting Greek mythological figures. The extension contained a council chamber for the new county council as well as officers for the council officers. After the abolition of Renfrewshire County Council in 1975, the building was used solely for judicial purposes: it continued to be used for hearings of the sheriff court. In January 1996, the court was the venue for the fatal accident investigation into the Mull of Kintyre Chinook crash in 1994 when all twenty-five passengers, including almost all the United Kingdom's senior

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. More generally, it can b ...

experts, as well as four crew on board were killed. In 2013, the exterior court scenes for the TV drama series, ''

The Escape Artist ''The Escape Artist'' is a 1982 film starring Griffin O'Neal and Raúl Juliá. It was based on a book by David Wagoner, and was the directorial debut of Caleb Deschanel. It was the final film of Joan Hackett, Desi Arnaz, and Gabriel Dell, and t ...

'', were filmed outside the building. Since 2011, on one day a month, the building has also been used as the venue for hearings of the justice of the peace court.

References

External links

*{{commonscat-inline Government buildings completed in 1885 County halls in Scotland Category A listed buildings in Renfrewshire Court buildings in Scotland Buildings and structures in Paisley, Renfrewshire 1885 establishments in Scotland Neoclassical architecture in Scotland

History

See also

References

External links