County Buildings, Kinross
| County Buildings, Kinross | |
|---|---|
.jpg) County Buildings, Kinross | |
| Location | High Street, Kinross |
| Coordinates | 56°12′24″N 3°25′18″W / 56.2066°N 3.4217°W |
| Built | 1826 |
| Architect | Thomas Brown |
| Architectural style(s) | Neoclassical style |
Listed Building – Category B | |
| Official name | County Buildings, 21, 23, 25 High Street, Kinross |
| Designated | 5 October 1971 |
| Reference no. | LB36288 |
  Shown in Perth and Kinross | |
County Buildings is a municipal structure in the High Street in Kinross, Perth and Kinross, Scotland. The structure, which accommodates the local area offices for Perth and Kinross Council, is a Category B listed building.[1]
History
The first county hall in Kinross-shire was a modest structure in the High Street which was completed in around 1600. It was primarily used as a courthouse and was repaired to a design by the architect and local member of parliament, Robert Adam, in 1771.[2] The design involved a prominent bowed frontage facing south down the High Street.[3]
In the 1820s, the local sheriff decided that a more substantial courthouse was needed: a suitable site, further north along the High Street, was selected. The new building was designed by Thomas Brown of Uphall in the neoclassical style, built in ashlar stone at a cost of £2,000 and was completed in 1826.[4][5]
The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto the High Street, with the end bays slightly projected forward as pavilions; the central bay featured a doorway with a fanlight flanked by a pair of Doric order columns supporting an entablature, with a sash window on the first floor. The other bays in the central section were fenestrated by round headed windows on the ground floor and by square headed sash windows on the first floor. The outer bays, which featured doorways on the ground floor and sash windows with architraves on the first floor, were surmounted by pediments which contained a clock in the left hand tympanum and an oculus in the right hand tympanum. Internally, the principal rooms were the courtroom, the witness rooms, the sheriff clerk's offices, a records room and several cells for prisoners.[4]
Following the implementation of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, which established county councils in every county, Kinross-shire County Council also established its offices in the building.[6][7] A war memorial, in the form of a column surmounted by a cross and mounted on a pedestal, which was intended to commemorate the lives of local service personnel who died in the First World War, was unveiled outside the building in the presence of Lord Constable on 1 January 1921.[8][9] Following the abolition of the county council in 1975, the building was converted for use as a business centre,[10] but it also continued to accommodate the local area offices of Perth and Kinross Council.[11]
See also
References
- ^ Historic Environment Scotland. "County Buildings, 21, 23, 25 High Street, Kinross (LB36288)". Retrieved 14 July 2022.
- ^ "Kinross". Gazetteer for Scotland. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
- ^ Historic Environment Scotland. "Old County Building 109-113 High Street (LB36300)". Retrieved 14 July 2022.
- ^ a b Gifford, John (2007). Perth and Kinross (Buildings of Scotland Series). Yale University Press. p. 104. ISBN 978-0300109221.
- ^ "Kinross Conservation Area Appraisal" (PDF). Perth and Kinross Council. p. 4. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
- ^ Shennan, Hay (1892). Boundaries of Counties and Parishes in Scotland: as settled by the Boundary Commissioners under the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1889. Edinburgh: William Green & Sons – via Internet Archive.
- ^ "No. 19096". The Edinburgh Gazette. 12 May 1972. p. 422.
- ^ "Kinross". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
- ^ "Kinross". War Memorials Online. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
- ^ "Kinross Business Centre, 21-25 High Street, Perth & Kinross". Flexi Offices. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
- ^ "Perth and Kinross residents to be consulted over election polling places". Daily Record. 6 November 2009. Retrieved 14 July 2022.