The Chambers Institution is a municipal structure in the High Street in Peebles, Scotland. The structure, which was designed to accommodate a library, a museum, an art gallery and Peebles Burgh Hall, 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

The first municipal building in the town was a

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

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 stood on the south side of the Eddleston Water near the Bridgegate and which dated back to the 15th century. By the early 17th century, the tollbooth was already in a dilapidated state. The second municipal building was a town house on the north side of the High Street adjacent to Cuddy Bridge, which was built to a very plain design on the site of a 14th century chapel and which was completed in 1753. The third and current municipal building on the south side of the High Street started life as a domestic property in the 16th century. It belonged to the Cross Kirk and was known as the Dean's House before being acquired by

John Hay, 1st Earl of Tweeddale John Hay, 1st Earl of Tweeddale (1593–1653) was a Scottish aristocrat. Hay was the son of James Hay, 7th Lord Hay of Yester and Margaret Kerr or Ker, eldest daughter of Sir John Ker of Ferniehirst. He became Lord Hay of Yester in February 1609 ...

in 1624. In 1653, it passed to John Hay, 1st Marquess of Tweeddale and, in 1687, it was inherited by William Douglas, 1st Duke of Queensberry who made it available as a lodging to his son, William Douglas, 1st Earl of March. After the building, known by this time as the Queensberry Lodging, had passed down the Queensberry line through much of the 18th century, William Douglas, 4th Duke of Queensberry sold it to the provost, Dr James Reid, in 1781. It then remained in the Reid family until it was acquired by the publisher, William Chambers, in 1857. Over the next few years, Chambers remodelled the building and its grounds to provide facilities for the social improvement of the town. The remodelled structure was designed by John Paris in the

Scottish baronial style Scottish baronial or Scots baronial is an architectural style of 19th century Gothic Revival which revived the forms and ornaments of historical architecture of Scotland in the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period. Reminiscent of Scot ...

, built with a

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

finish and was officially opened on 8 August 1859. The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage with six bays facing onto the High Street. The first bay was fenestrated with single windows on all three floors and was gabled; the second bay, which was recessed on the upper floors, was fenestrated by a five-light transomed window on the ground floor, by a single window on the first floor and by a

dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable space ...

window on the second floor. The central section of three bays featured a pend and a large

bay window A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room. Types Bay window is a generic term for all protruding window constructions, regardless of whether they are curved or angular, or r ...

on the ground floor: the section was fenestrated with single windows on the first floor and dormer windows on the second floor and featured a

bartizan A bartizan (an alteration of ''bratticing''), also called a guerite, ''garita'', or ''échauguette'', or spelled bartisan, is an overhanging, wall-mounted turret projecting from the walls of late medieval and early-modern fortifications from the ...

at the top left corner. The last bay, which was projected forward, took the form of a four-stage tower with an ogee-shaped roof. The pend led to a courtyard: it was bounded on the north side by the original building, which accommodated a library, on the west side by a new structure, which accommodated a museum and an art gallery, and on the south side by a new burgh hall. Ownership of the complex passed to the burgh council in 1911. The burgh council then took up an offer by the

Scottish-American Scottish Americans or Scots Americans (Scottish Gaelic language, Scottish Gaelic: ''Ameireaganaich Albannach''; sco, Scots-American) are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in Scotland. Scottish people, Scottish Americans are cl ...

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 ...

, to finance a five-bay extension to the west. The extension was built to a design by George Washington Browne and completed in 1911. Fenestrated with

cross-window A cross-window is a window whose lights are defined by a mullion and a transom, forming a cross.Curl, James Stevens (2006). ''Oxford Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture'', 2nd ed., OUP, Oxford and New York, p. 214. . The Late ...

s on the first floor and castellated along the roof, the extension incorporated shops on the ground floor and additional library space on the first floor. A memorial to commemorate the lives of local service personnel who died in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, designed by Burnett Napier Henderson Orphoot in the form of a

hexagon In geometry, a hexagon (from Ancient Greek, Greek , , meaning "six", and , , meaning "corner, angle") is a six-sided polygon. The total of the internal angles of any simple polygon, simple (non-self-intersecting) hexagon is 720°. Regular hexa ...

al pavilion with an ogee-shaped roof, was unveiled in the courtyard in 1922. The burgh hall continued to serve as the meeting place of the burgh council for much of the 20th century, but ceased to be the local seat of government after the enlarged Tweeddale District Council was formed at the former County Hall in Rosetta Road in 1975. In 1990, a new room was opened in the museum to display friezes donated by William Chambers which reproduced sections of the Elgin Marbles, sculpted by

Phidias Phidias or Pheidias (; grc, Φειδίας, ''Pheidias''; 480 – 430 BC) was a Greek sculptor, painter, and architect. His Statue of Zeus at Olympia was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Phidias also designed the stat ...

and displayed in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, and the whole of the "Triumph of Alexander", sculpted by

Bertel Thorvaldsen Bertel Thorvaldsen (; 19 November 1770 – 24 March 1844) was a Danes, Danish and Icelanders, Icelandic Sculpture, sculptor medallist, medalist of international fame, who spent most of his life (1797–1838) in Italy. Thorvaldsen was born in ...

and displayed in the Quirinal Palace.

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

visited the building to open the John Buchan Museum, a new part of the Chambers Institution, in July 2013. Works of Art in the art gallery include a portrait by John A. Horsburgh of William Chambers, a portrait by

Colvin Smith Colvin Smith RSA (1795 – 21 July 1875) was a Scottish portraitist. Life Smith was born at Brechin, in Angus, the son of John Smith, a merchant, and his wife, Cecilia Gillies. He studied art in London at the Royal Academy Schools and worked ...

of the poet,

Sir Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy' ...

, and a portrait by Edward Arthur Walton of the industrialist, Sir Walter Thorburn.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1859 Category A listed buildings in the Scottish Borders City chambers and town halls in Scotland Peebles Local museums in Scotland Museums in the Scottish Borders Art museums and galleries in the Scottish Borders

History

See also

References