Paisley Town Hall is a public hall in Abbey Close, Paisley,

Renfrewshire Renfrewshire () ( sco, Renfrewshire; gd, Siorrachd Rinn Friù) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. Located in the west central Lowlands, it is one of three council areas contained within the boundaries of the historic county of Renfr ...

, Scotland. The building, which is being converted into a centre for performing arts, 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

In the mid-19th century the administrative centre of the town was 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 ...

at the junction of High Street and Moss Street which was built in 1491, rebuilt in 1610, rebuilt again in 1757 and then demolished in 1821. The administrative centre then moved to the municipal buildings, which contained council chambers and offices, further to the east along the High Street. However, civic leaders needed a public hall in which to hold concerts and other public events and George Aitken Clark, one of the members of the Clark family, owners of the Anchor Mills, left money in his will for this purpose. The site they selected, just to the south of the municipal buildings, had previously been occupied by a dye works. The foundation stone for the town hall was laid by Mrs Clarke, the benefactor's mother, on 22 October 1879. It was designed by William Henry Lynn and William Young 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 ...

, built by Messrs Morrison and Mason 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 ...

at a cost of £50,000 and officially opened as the "George A. Clark Town Hall" on 30 January 1882. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with nine bays facing Abbey Close; the central section of five bays featured three glass doorways on the ground floor; there was a huge

hexastyle 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 ...

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 ...

with

Corinthian order The Corinthian order (Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: ''Ordo Corinthius'') is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order ...

columns on the first floor with 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 ...

above. There were also curved wings which swept behind the portico and finished in the end bays. The north elevation featured two towers, the taller of which contained a clock designed and manufactured by

Gillett and Bland Gillett & Johnston was a clockmaker and bell foundry based in Croydon, England from 1844 until 1957. Between 1844 and 1950, over 14,000 tower clocks were made at the works. The company's most successful and prominent period of activity as a bel ...

. A grand organ, made by Bryceson Bros and Ellis, was installed in the main hall and a statue by

John Mossman John G. Mossman (London 1817–1890) was one of a number of English sculptors who dominated the production and teaching of sculpture in Glasgow for 50 years after his arrival with his father and brothers from his native London in 1828. His fa ...

of George Aitken Clark was erected in Abbey Close, in front of the town hall, in 1885. The chiming mechanism for the bells, which had ceased to function, was repaired in 1988. In February 2019 proposals were announced to convert the town hall into a centre for performing arts. The works, which were to be carried out by

Kier Group Kier Group plc is a British construction, services and property group active in building and civil engineering, support services, and the Private Finance Initiative. Founded in 1928 in Stoke-on-Trent it initially specialised in concrete enginee ...

at a cost of £22 million, commenced in summer 2019.

Notes

References

{{reflist Paisley Government buildings completed in 1882 1882 establishments in Scotland Buildings and structures in Paisley, Renfrewshire Category A listed buildings in Renfrewshire Listed government buildings in Scotland Clock towers in the United Kingdom

History

See also

Notes

References