Description

James Sellars of Campbell, Douglas & Sellars, Glasgow, 1882: additions 1894 and 1898. 2-storey and part basement, Scots Renaissance public hall with square tower and octagonal belfry. Squared and snecked rubble with stugged quoins. Base and 1st floor cill courses, eaves cornice. Channelled, pilastered angles, round headed openings, voussoirs and keystone, pedimented windowhead to tower; stone transoms and mullions to N window, chamfered arrises.

N (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: tower (see below) to left; advanced gabled bay to right with 2 small windows below round-headed, transomed tripartite window with panelled aprons, full-height flanking pilasters and small window on return to left at ground.

TOWER: 3-stage tower with belfry; stages 1 and 2 engaged to S and W. 1st stage: N elevation with round-headed, keystoned door and 2-leaf panelled timber door with decorative-astragalled fanlight: E elevation with projecting bay to left, timber door in roll-moulded doorway below bipartite window, and lower pedimented, canted bay with keystoned, round-headed window in re-entrant angle to right. 2nd stage with pedimented window to N and pediment over dividing course to E. 3rd stage with clock face in roll-moulded panel to N, S and E elevations. Cavetto cornice above giving way to ogee-roofed octagonal belfry with wrought-iron weathercock.

E ELEVATION: 5-bay above ground, with tower to right, on ground falling to S. Projecting bowed bay with 4 round-headed windows to right; 3 windows over blank raised basement to centre; further recessed bay to outer left with door to centre and window to left at basement, and 3 windows to ground. 5 round-headed windows to 2nd stage, and finialled, polygonal, louvred roof-ridge ventilator above.

W ELEVATION: 6-bay hall with round-headed window to 2nd stage of each bay, that to outer left gabled and with small window to ground left and door to right, further window above to right; single storey porch (dated 1898) with timber door abutting between bays 1 and 2.

S ELEVATION: symmetrical fenestration to tall, largely blank gabled bay with raised basement and lower, piended block to right.

Decorative-astragalled. multi-pane and margined glazing to all round-headed windows; small-pane glazing patterns in timber sash and case windows elsewhere. Grey slates. Coped ashlar stacks with ashlar-coped skews, moulded and flat skewputts. Cast-iron downpipes with decorative rainwater hoppers.

INTERIOR: decorative plasterwork; panelled and rail dadoes; decorative cast-iron balusters with timber newel posts and handrail.

Statement of Interest

Built with funds raised by subscription, the Pathhead Theatre and Music Hall was officially opened by Provost Swan on 22nd February, 1884. The main contractor was Alex Fraser & Son, and the belfry design is close to that of Dysart Tolbooth. In 1994, after a period of about 10 years when the building lay empty, Fife College opened the Arts and Leisure Centre for use by students and the community.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17806642

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

• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)