Description

1871-3, James Jamieson Lamb and Baillie James Barr Lamb, Paisley, rebuilt after fire in 1877, supervised by Loudon, Clerk of Works, Blythswood Estate. 2-storey, with tall 6-stage tower, French Gothic. Snecked cream sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings. Concealed roof.

EAST ELEVATION: tower to right, with arched entrance in slightly advanced gabled porch. 12-panel 2-leaf door, timber tympanum with simple 'tracery', arms of Renfrew Burgh in gable head, breaking frieze with double-quatrefoil panels. Tall 2-light lancet window at first with round-arched drip mould. Floriated panel in space between lancet heads. Frieze between first and second floors with quatrefoil panels.

Single round-headed louvred opening at first floor, heavily moulded, with Gothick 'tracery'. Blind arcade frieze between second and

third floors. Clock face at third floor with hoodmould linked to small

corbelled bartizans at corners, with linking corbelled parapet pierced

by trefoil openings. Bartizans have blind quatrefoils near base, moulded band, long blind oval, and vertically grooved deep eaves band, moulded cornice and candle-snuffer roofs with thistle finials. Timber spire above parapet with gabled lucarnes, broached to octagonal

gableted lantern with tall fish-scale leaded roof. Ship weathervane. To left of tower 3-bay 2-storey range with central paired lancet-headed doorways. Floriated panel between lancet heads and quatrefoil in outer spandrels. Flanking 2-light windows similarly located, with panelled aprons. Quoin strips divide and end bays, with cornice at 'lintel', level. Modillioned cornice above plain frieze with central arcaded balcony below central first floor window. All 3 first floor windows two light lancets with floriated panels. Modillioned cornice,

parapet with quatrefoil openings. Concealed roof.

NORTH ELEVATION: tower to left, with 2-light lancet at ground, located as first floor lancets on east elevation. Date panel 1871 above. Rest of tower as on east elevation. 2-storey, 8-bay range to right has window and door and 5 windows and door at ground. Windows single lancets, doors on left has hoodmould, on right deeply moulded.

Plain frieze, modillioned cornice, first floor cill band. At first floor 6 plain lancets in centre with flanking 2-light windows as in first floor of tower. Modillioned cornice and parapet as on east elevation.

WEST ELEVATION: 2-storey, 3 bay, central double lancet doorway at ground, flanked by single blind lancets. Frieze, cornice and cill

course as on north. 3 plain lancets at first, cornice and parapet as on north, central wallhead chimneystack. Top 2-stages of tower show above 2-storey range.

SOUTH ELEVATION: to left 6 bays with later single-storey block in re-entrant formed by two projecting bays. On left single lancet at ground with timber Y tracery, cornice and frieze details as north and west elevations, plain double lancet at first. Centre 6 bays have paired windows at ground within chamfered surround (2 on right cut by single storey block), and plain single lancets at first. 2-bays on right advanced in steps both treated as on east elevation, but with hoodmoulds over ground floor windows. Tower visible from third stage up, detail as on east elevation.

INTERIOR: not seen.

Statement of Interest

One of a group of mid-Victorian town halls in central Scotland with similar architectural treatment, including Dunfermline, Lockerbie, Annan and Hawick. Gilbert Scott's Glasgow University was planned to have a timber steeple in a similar manner to this one.

Lamb died on 28 September 1872 when the building was under construction.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Renfrew, The Cross, Renfrew Town Hall at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17572348

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.

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