Description

Smart, Stewart & Mitchell, dated 1930. Single storey, asymmetrical, roughly L-plan, Arts and Crafts village hall and institute. 3-bay hall to left with central, advanced, clock tower. 3-bay institute to right with canted end bays and advanced entrance porch. Concrete drydash render with red sandstone ashlar margins. Raised, chamfered base course, cornice. Some simple bargeboarding; hoodmoulded windows to hall; raised cills to institute. Notable timber panelled interior.

HALL: W (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: symmetrical. Central advanced, 2-stage canted bay with segmental-arched moulded doorpiece with inscribed date keystone and with 2-leaf boarded timber entrance door with iron hinges. Clock face above. Flanking bipartite windows with chamfered mullions.

S elevation: 6 bays; buttressed. Window openings breaking wallhead with piended dormers. Advanced piended roof bay to right and later flat-roofed extension to far right.

INSTITUTE: W (ENTRANCE ELEVATION): to left of hall. 3-bay, largely symmetrical; advanced central piended porch with recessed 2-leaf panelled timber entrance door. Broad, canted bay corners.

Predominantly metal multi-pane casement windows to institute and diamond lead-paned windows to hall with coloured glass. Piended roofs; polygonal piended roofs over canted bays. Grey slates, cast iron rainwater goods. Single wallhead stack.

INTERIOR: (seen 2011). Original interior and room layout largely intact. Institute with open timber boarded ceiling with timber arch braces, springing from stone corbels. Timber panelling and timber benching to walls. Hall with round-arched ceiling, timber panelling and low timber stage. Part-glazed doors.

Statement of Interest

This largely unaltered, inter-war Arts & Crafts community hall and institute forms a significant streetscape presence in the village of Meikleour. The building is a good example of its type and is well detailed with ashlar margins, hoodmoulding and with a variety of rooflines which add to the interest of the building. The interior is particularly notable for its timber panelling and ceiling.

The building is dated 1930 and was opened in 1931. It was built on land gifted to the village of Miekleour by the Meikelour Estate. A local man, Sir James Carmichael who had become a builder in London, supplied the men and the building materials for the project.

Village halls and institutes played an increasingly important role in village community life at the beginning of the 20th century. Often gifted to a community by a local philanthropist, as here, they would offer a place for the community to gather for recreation and sometimes also for learning. The building at Meikleour continues to fulfil this function.

Smart, Stewart & Mitchell, (from 1924-post 1949) were a Perth based architectural firm whose work mainly centred on Perth and the surrounding villages.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77782288

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

• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)