Description

1894; later additions. Set of Scottish Renaissance public buildings, including burgh hall, police and fire stations on large site bounded by Victoria Park Drive S, Inchlee Street and Medwyn Street. 4-bay, 2-storey with upper breaking eaves, L-plan, Scottish Renaissance burgh hall linked to single storey former police station to S and 3-storey former fire station and accommodation block linked to police station to SE corner of site. Circa 1905 extension to hall in similar style to original to SW. Squared and snecked, bull-faced red sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings.

HALL: slightly splayed gable ended entrance elevation to E. Central round-arched doorway with prominent key stone and carved roundels; corniced and balustraded balcony above. Large quadripartite transomed and mullioned window with triangular pediment and inset escutcheon, all set within large recessed, round arch gable apex. Advanced corniced square-plan towers (reduced in height) with prominent single fluted and scrolled corbal to upper section flanking central bay; pedimented doorway to left; advanced single storey piended section to far left with blocking course and bipartite window. N (Victoria Park Drive South) elevation: 4 bays. Curved pedimented doorway to far left; canted bay with single window to right; advanced entrance with door to far right; narrow battered buttresses extending to low eaves course set between each bay. Tall triangular and curvilinear pedimented breaking eaves dormers; transomed and mullioned bipartite windows with moulded cills. Similar breaking eaves dormers to S elevation.

Predominantly plate glass in timber sash and case windows. Swept pitched roof; grey Scots slates in diminishing courses; base of (removed) cast-iron roof lantern at centre ridge; coped, ashlar chimneystack to W gable. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: coffered ceiling; good polychrome plaster work; raised stage with chamfered, plaster arch surround.

CIRCA 1905 EXTENSION TO HALL: small 2-storey rectangular-plan pitched roof hall linked to 1894 hall to SW. S (entrance) elevation: 3-bay gable end, further round arched entrance bay recessed to left. Bipartite windows flanking narrow central window. Dentilled string course with returns; 1st floor pedimented tripartite window; masonic crest. Arrow point gable apex; corniced ashlar skews and skewputts. Raised lugged margins. Pitched roof; grey slates; 2 louvred ridge lanterns and coped stack to N gable.

POLICE AND FIRE STATIONS (1894): single and 3-storey, U-plan police station incorporating block of living quarters to S (restored with upper storeys converted to sheltered accommodation - 2000). Police station entrance to S re-entrant angle; canted porch. Boiler house with pitched, slate roof to N of small courtyard.

S Block: 4 bay; string course with down pipe mouldings; band course to upper storey; raised chimney flue detail at wallhead gables to S and E; blind gable to W. Plate glass timber sash and case windows; flush ashlar dressings. Former fire station entrance with raised lintel surround to S central bays (door blocked to sash and case window, mid 20th century). Pitched roof; replacement slates; coped ashlar stacks. Cast iron rainwater goods.

BOUNDARY WALL, GATEPIERS AND RAILINGS: low coped boundary wall to N and E; original cast-iron railings and gates. Squared, coped stone piers with square bell caps and ball-finials to gates (N and E). Stepped and coped wall with entrance to police station courtyard to E. Square, coped gate piers with ball-finials to SW corner; cast iron double gate with scroll motifs.

Statement of Interest

The Lesser Burgh Hall itself makes distinctive use of Scottish Renaisance details. Despite the loss of its flanking entrance towers and ornate roof lantern, the character of the building remains substantially unimpared. The complex of buildings as a whole is historically significant in terms of the social and municipal development of Whiteinch.

Occupying a prominent position on the Southern edge of Victoria Park (opened 1886), the Hall is now cut off from the park by the A814 expressway. The Whiteinch Conservation Area (rows of villas surrounding bowling green built in the 1880s for workers from the Scotstoun estate) lies one block to the West.

The hall was utilised by St Johns Lodge, Whiteinch between 1895 until its closure in 1964, with the circa 1905 extension purpose built for masonic usage. Used as a Social work and Communty centre between 1990s and 2002, the council owned buildings are currently considered to be surplus to requirements (2006).

The police station's cells retain their original stone beds. The small fire station, which would have utilised a handbarrow with hose and ladder, is indicated on the OS map of 1892-7. It is not shown on the map of 1908-11 and may have become redundant by that time.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Former Whiteinch Burgh Hall, Former Police Station and Former Fire Station Including Boundary Wall, at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17813723

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

• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)