Description

Built in 1810-12 as part of Robert Reid's prisoner of war scheme as 'guardhouses', this pair of single storey buildings each comprises 9 bays with slightly advanced end bays and regularly spaced round-arched full height niches with square-headed window openings. They flank the entrance to HMP Perth. They are built of squared and coursed whinstone with cream ashlar dressings and quoins and there are overhanging bracketed eaves and slate piended roofs.

Statement of Interest

The site of HMP Perth has its origins as The Depôt, Scotland's principal place of internment for French prisoners or war. Designed by Robert Reid as a military fort in 1810-12, it was later chosen as the site for a General Prison for Scotland. The Visitor Centre and Staff Club are a pair of rare surviving guardroom buildings from Reid's Camp which were reused in Thomas Brown's reworking of the site to form the General Prison at Perth in the 1840s. The Depôt was unique – it was the sole purpose-built site of this scale and type constructed in Scotland. Buildings surviving from this period are therefore exceptionally rare and they tell us much about military architecture and design of the period. The position of these buildings on one of the principal routes into Perth gives them added streetscape interest.

The Napoleonic Wars (1803-15) where Britain and France were at war was the reason that the Perth Depôt for French prisoners of war was built. Large numbers of French prisoners were interned in the south of England but this was considered too great a risk for the security of the English ports and it was decided that a number of prisoners should be transferred to Scotland. Built to hold 7,000 men it was designed by Robert Reid (1774-1856; architect and surveyor to the King in Scotland from 1808-40) in 1810-12 as a military prison. The pair of former guardrooms and the former Surgeon's House are the principal survivors on the site of the former prisoner of war complex.

Category changed from B to A, statutory address, listed building record revised in 2015 as part of the Scottish Prison Service Listing Review 2014-15. Previously listed as 'Perth Prison Edinburgh Road 'A' Block 18,19 South Square'.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata IDs Q17849055 Q56448346

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

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  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
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  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
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  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
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  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)