Description

Andrew Heiton (Perth), 1872-4. 2-storey, 3-bay Domestic Gothic detailed Institute with later single storey, cottage-style extension. Harled with contrasting stugged ashlar dressings. Raked raised base/ground floor cill course, band and eaves courses. Pointed-arch, tri-cusped or shouldered openings; roll-moulded doorway; buttress-detailed porch and gables; voussoirs and stone mullions.

SE (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: symmetrical. Centre bay with gabled porch, buttressed outer angles and pointed-arch doorway below carved band worded 'THE GREIG INSTITUTE' and shield dated '1872' in gablehead; 2-leaf panelled timber door and decoratively-astragalled fanlight: small shouldered bipartite window to set-back 1st floor. Flanking bays each with slightly advanced full-height buttress-effect gables; tripartite window to ground floor with individual tri-lobed heads and moulded stop-chamfering, and further tripartite windows above with colonnette mullions, pointed-arch outer framing and carved shield detail to typanum. Single storey extension to outer left.

NE (FORTH STREET) ELEVATION: 4 tri-cusped windows in pointed arch surrounds to ground floor, and further tri-cusped window in gablehead to left (all part blocked).

NW ELEVATION: slightly advanced rounded bay to centre with window to ground and tall tripartite window above; piend-roofed outer bays, that to left with door to right and 2 narrow windows to left at ground, and pointed-arch tripartite window breaking eaves above; bay to right of centre with door to left and 2 vertically-aligned windows to right, tripartite window to 1st floor as above. Single storey extension to outer right.

SW ELEVATION: single storey extension projecting at ground, gabled bay to right with part-blocked bipartite window in gablehead.

Plate glass glazing in timber sash and case windows; windows to centre bay at rear altered. Grey slates. Coped, shouldered and harled gablehead stacks; ashlar-coped skews and roll-moulded skewputts. Cast-iron downpipes with decorative rainwater hoppers, and decorative cast-iron finials.

INTERIOR: plain cornicing; timber-balustered dog-leg staircase; boarded timber dadoes. Pointed-arch commemorative panel (see Notes) to ground floor.

BOUNDARY WALLS: low ashlar-coped, rock-faced boundary walls.

Statement of Interest

The Greig Institute is built on land gifted by Mr Thomas Greig of Glencarse, and sited very close to the former 'Greig's Row' which ran parallel to the Schoolhouse garden. Building funds were donated by Mr Greig, Captain Christie of Durie House,

Mr Alex Balfour of Mount Alyn, Cheshire and local businessmen Messrs Wilkie, Nicoll, Anderson, Smith and Lyall. The foundation stone was laid on 18th July, 1872 by Thomas Greig and the Institute was formally opened on 14th January 1874. The building and furnishing costs of ?2000 provided a reading room which once boasted an oil painting of Mr Thomas Greig, a room for technical education classes, and a library. The latter was enlarged in 1905 with a donation of new volumes by Mr James Coates Junior of Paisley. This information is recorded on the commemorative panel (see Interior). The library, museum and tourist office remained in this building until 1995, and the extension is used as a police post. At the time of resurvey (1999) the building is occupied by the Scottish Oral History Group.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17810376

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)