Dunfermline City Chambers is a municipal facility at the corner of Bridge Street and Kirkgate in Dunfermline, Fife. The building, which serves as home to the local area committee of

Fife Council Fife Council is the local authority for the Fife area of Scotland and is the third largest Scottish council, with 75 elected council members. Councillors are generally elected every five years. At the 2012 election there were 78 councillors ele ...

, 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 building was commissioned to replace the old town house in Bridge Street which had been completed in 1771. After rapid industrial growth in the local area, civic leaders decided they needed a more substantial facility and the old town house was demolished, to make way for the current building. The foundation stone for the new building was laid on 11 October 1876. It was designed by

James Campbell Walker James Campbell Walker (11 April 1821 – 10 January 1888) was a Scottish architect in the 19th century, practising across the country and specialising in poorhouses and schools. His main claim to fame is in having designed Dunfermline Carnegie L ...

in the

French Gothic style French Gothic architecture is an architectural style which emerged in France in 1140, and was dominant until the mid-16th century. The most notable examples are the great Gothic cathedrals of France, including Notre-Dame Cathedral, Reims Cathedra ...

, built by Messrs W & J Hutchison and completed in May 1879. The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage with twelve bays facing onto Kirkgate; the southern section featured a doorway with an octagonal turret above in the south east corner, while the northern section featured an elaborate doorway with a balcony and prominent four-face clock tower with

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 th ...

s in the north east corner. The structure included heraldic stones, recovered from the demolished 18th century town house, which may have originated from the now derelict

Dunfermline Palace Dunfermline Palace is a ruined former Scottish royal palace and important tourist attraction in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland. It is currently, along with other buildings of the adjacent Dunfermline Abbey, under the care of Historic Environment ...

, a few hundred yards to the south. The stonework on the Bridge Street

façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loan word from the French (), which means ' frontage' or ' face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important aspect ...

included busts of

Malcolm Canmore Malcolm III ( mga, Máel Coluim mac Donnchada, label=Medieval Gaelic; gd, Maol Chaluim mac Dhonnchaidh; died 13 November 1093) was King of Scotland from 1058 to 1093. He was later nicknamed "Canmore" ("ceann mòr", Gaelic, literally "big head" ...

, Queen Margaret,

Robert the Bruce Robert I (11 July 1274 – 7 June 1329), popularly known as Robert the Bruce (Scottish Gaelic: ''Raibeart an Bruis''), was King of Scots from 1306 to his death in 1329. One of the most renowned warriors of his generation, Robert eventual ...

and

Elizabeth de Burgh Lady Elizabeth de Burgh (; ; c. 1289 – 27 October 1327) was the second wife and the only queen consort of King Robert the Bruce. Elizabeth was born sometime around 1289, probably in what is now County Down or County Antrim in Ulster, th ...

. Internally, the principal room was the council chamber on the first floor: it incorporated an

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

hammerbeam roof. There were police cells in the basement of the building. The building was the headquarters of the

royal burgh A royal burgh () was a type of Scottish burgh which had been founded by, or subsequently granted, a royal charter. Although abolished by law in 1975, the term is still used by many former royal burghs. Most royal burghs were either created by ...

of Dunfermline until it was replaced by Dunfermline District under the wider Fife Regional Council in May 1975.McEwan Bert ''Dunfermline: The Post-War Years'' p.16. The building ceased to be a seat of government after the district council was abolished in 1996, under the

Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 The Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 (c. 39) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which created the current local government structure of 32 unitary authorities covering the whole of Scotland. It abolished the two-tie ...

. Since then, the building has served as the home of the local area committee of

, as a venue for marriages and civil partnerships and as the local registration office. Works of art in the city chambers include Sir Joseph Paton's painting of Queen Margaret and Malcolm Canmore.

References

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History

See also

References

Further reading