Stonehaven Town Hall is a municipal building in Allardice Street,

Stonehaven Stonehaven ( , ) is a town in Scotland. It lies on Scotland's northeast coast and had a population of 11,602 at the 2011 Census. After the demise of the town of Kincardine, which was gradually abandoned after the destruction of its royal cast ...

Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire ( sco, Aiberdeenshire; gd, Siorrachd Obar Dheathain) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the County of Aberdeen which has substantially differe ...

, Scotland. The building, which is largely used as an events venue, 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

The first municipal building in Stonehaven was the

Stonehaven Tolbooth The Stonehaven Tolbooth is a late 16th-century stone building originally used as a courthouse and a prison in the town of Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Constructed of local Old Red Sandstone, the prison probably attained its greatest not ...

which was erected on the old pier in the late 16th century. It was used as a courthouse and as a prison and later as a storehouse and was followed by the town house and clock tower which were erected by

public subscription Subscription refers to the process of investors signing up and committing to invest in a financial instrument, before the actual closing of the purchase. The term comes from the Latin word ''subscribere''. Historical Praenumeration An early form ...

in the High Street, a short distance to the west of the tolbooth, in 1790. In the 19th century the focus of development moved north of the Carron Water to what became known as the "New Town": the market buildings were built on the west side of Allardice Street and completed in 1827. In the 1870s the burgh leaders decided to commission a dedicated civic events venue for the town: the site they selected was on the east side of Allardice Street facing the market buildings. The new building was designed by James Matthews and William Lawrie in the

Renaissance style Renaissance architecture is the European architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 16th centuries in different regions, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of Ancient Greece, ancient Greek and ...

, built in

rubble masonry Rubble stone is rough, uneven building stone not laid in regular courses. It may fill the core of a wall which is faced with unit masonry such as brick or ashlar. Analogously, some medieval cathedral walls are outer shells of ashlar with an inn ...

at a cost of £4,000 and was officially opened on 7 May 1878. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto Allardice Street together with an additional recessed bay on the left which featured an arched carriageway on the ground floor; the central bay featured a doorway flanked by

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 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 frieze inscribed with the words "Town Hall". The first floor was fenestrated with round headed

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 ...

s in all the bays including the recessed bay. At roof level there was a

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 ...

, 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 central panel inscribed with the date of construction and, behind the parapet, there were also five

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 ...

windows. Internally, the principal rooms were the assembly hall, a billiard room and a reading room. The building was used as an events venue from an early stage: the showman,

Walford Bodie Walford Bodie, whose real name was Samuel Murphy Bodie (11 June 1869 – 19 October 1939), was a Scottish showman, hypnotist, ventriloquist and stage magician, famous for his "mock" electrocutions involving a replica of " The Electric Chair". He ...

, conducted his first public performance of

hypnosis Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention (the selective attention/selective inattention hypothesis, SASI), reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.In 2015, the American Psychologica ...

ventriloquism Ventriloquism, or ventriloquy, is a performance act of stagecraft in which a person (a ventriloquist) creates the illusion that their voice is coming from elsewhere, usually a puppeteered prop known as a "dummy". The act of ventriloquism is ve ...

and

magic Magic or Magick most commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces * Ceremonial magic, encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic * Magical thinking, the belief that unrela ...

in the town hall, at the age of 15, in 1884. The market buildings and the town hall were transferred to a elected board of trustees, who held the properties for the benefit of the burgh, in 1901, shortly before the town hall was altered to a design by Duncan McMillan and John Ross McMillan in 1903. Although the town hall was used as a venue for civic events, burgh council officers and their staff were located in offices in Cameron Street. In summer 1975, an annual art exhibition was instituted in the town hall, involving artists from all over the north-east of Scotland. The community-run radio station, ''

Mearns FM Mearns FM is a community run radio station based in the North East of Scotland. There are transmitters in Laurencekirk, Inverbervie, Stonehaven and Portlethen leading to a coverage area stretching from St Cyrus to Aberdeen. The studio is loc ...

'', was based at the town hall from its inception in 2007 until late 2019: after broadcasting from temporary studios, the station moved permanently to a new studio on Ann Street on 13 September 2020.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1879 City chambers and town halls in Scotland Category B listed buildings in Aberdeenshire Stonehaven

History

See also

References