The Court Residence, (Former Linlithgow Sheriff Court), including boundary walls and gatepiers, 1 Court Square, High Street, Linlithgow, Linlithgow, West Lothian

Description

Thomas Brown and James Maitland Wardrop, 1862-1863 with further additions by Wardrop and Charles Reid, 1875. There were internal alterations in the 1990s and further alterations for conversion into a hotel in 2014.

The building is a 2-storey, 6-bay, gabled L-plan Tudor Revival style former court house. The High Street elevation is asymmetrical with an advanced double gabled entrance bay to the right. The building is constructed in squared, stugged and snecked sandstone rubble with polished surrounds, and has a moulded base, string courses that continue to hoodmoulds over the ground floor openings and an eaves parapet. The windows are single, bipartite and tripartite with ashlar mullions and transoms and chamfered reveals. The doorpieces have stepped hoodmoulds and there are contrasting quoins and window margins. The building has corbelled and polygonal stone chimney stacks and decorative gable finials. There are five large pointed windows at the first floor on the rear elevation which are for the former courtroom. There is an 1875 2-storey addition to the east side with a further single storey cell block range to the rear.

The building has multi-pane timber sash and case windows. There is a grey slate roof with ashlar gablet-coped skews and beaked skewputts. The rainwater goods are dated 1863 and that at the centre of the north elevation has a carved thistle motif.

The interior was seen in 2014. A good late 19th century decorative scheme survive to the entrance stairway and the former first floor courtroom. The former courtroom has a timber boarded ceiling on decorative quatrefoil detail trusses which are supported by carved columnettes on stone corbels. The interior fittings of the courtroom have been removed as part of the 2014 renovations although the shouldered architraves to the doorways remain. The entrance hall is dominated by a large half turn stair with decorative cast iron ballusters. Some of the openings are pointed arched and some 6-panel doors, window shutters and decorative cornicing remain. At the southwest corner on the ground floor is a former record room with a triple vaulted ceiling.

There are ashlar coped retaining boundary walls at the front boundary and a rubble wall to the southwest of the building. There are decorative octagonal pyramidal gatepiers to the west side forming the entrance to rear courtyard.

Statement of Interest

The former Linlithgow Sheriff Court is a significant example of mid 19th century civic architecture in the centre of this historic burgh town. Designed by the prolific court architects Brown and Wardrop it has a wealth of good quality stonework details to exterior and some high quality detailing surviving to the interior.

Age and Rarity

The former Linlithgow Court Building was built as the county courthouse and police building in front of the earlier town jail (now demolished) which is evident on the 1856 Town Plan. It reverted to the court house only when a police station was erected on the site of the jail in 1935.

The building was designed and built in 1862-1863 by the successful firm of architects Thomas Brown and James Maitland Wardrop. Drawings held by the National Records of Scotland show that the original building comprised of a Sheriff Court House and police accommodation with two cells in a wing at the southeast corner of the building.

In 1875 a single storey cell block with four cells was added by Wardrop and Charles Reid to the west wall of the police wing. The building is shown on the 2nd Edition Ordnance Survey Map of 1894 as the County Court Buildings. This map also shows a linear range to the south corner of the building. Only the rear wall of this range survives, forming a boundary wall in this part of the site. This range was replaced by a second courtroom in the later 20th century and was also demolished in 2014.

The court house stands partly on the historic site of Archbishop Hamilton's former house from where, on 23rd January 1570, the Regent Moray was shot by James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh: the memorial plaque to Regent Murray with a relief bust by Mrs D O Hill was inserted to the right of the main entrance door in 1875.

The development of the court house as a building type in Scotland follows the history of the Scottish legal system and wider government reforms. The majority of purpose-built court houses were constructed in the 19th century as by this time there was an increase in the separation of civic, administrative and penal functions into separate civic and institutional buildings, and the resultant surge of public building was promoted by new institutional bodies. The introduction of the Sheriff Court Houses (Scotland) Act of 1860 gave a major impetus to the increase and improvement of court accommodation and this provision of central funding was followed by the most active period of sheriff court house construction in the history of the Scottish legal system and many new court houses were built or reworked after this date.

Court houses constructed post 1860 generally had a solely legal purpose and did not incorporate a prison, other than temporary holding cells. The courts were designed in a variety of architectural styles many relying heavily on Scots Baronial features to reference the fortified Scottish building tradition. Newly constructed court buildings in the second half of the 19th century dispensed with large public spaces such as county halls and instead provided bespoke office accommodation for the sheriff, judge and clerks, and accommodating the numerous types of court and holding cells.

The former Linlithgow Sheriff Court is a significant example of a 19th century civic building which has been built in high quality materials with a wealth of good quality design details. Dating from 1862 it was among the first wave of court houses built following the 1860 Sheriff Court Houses (Scotland) Act.

Architectural or Historic Interest

Interior

Courts were often highly decorated buildings in keeping with being high status civic buildings and there are elements of the good late 19th decorative scheme surviving in this former court house. The entrance hall is a prominent feature of the interior which is dominated by an open squared stair. The main courtroom space has been altered (2014) removing the bench and seating, however, the fine corbelled timber roof remains.

Plan form

The plan form is standard for a court house of this period, with the courtroom located on the first floor. The plan form has been altered by the loss of the south range (shown on the 2nd Edition Ordnance Survey map) and the single storey cell block which was added to the rear in 1875 by the same architects.

Technological excellence or innovation, material or design quality

As prime civic buildings, courts usually had a significant amount of decorative work on the exterior and the former Linlithgow Sheriff Court is no exception, with many good quality stonework details to the exterior. Of particular note are the gablets with finials, the hoodmoulds and the decorative octagonal chimney stacks. Most court houses built after the 1860 Act were built in a Scots Baronial style, therefore Linlithgow is somewhat unusual as it is Tudor Revival in style.

James Maitland Wardrop (1823-1882) was articled to Thomas Brown, becoming a partner in the practice in 1849. As architect to the Prison Board of Scotland, Brown had extensive experience in designing county court houses and prisons, the design work of which Wardrop gradually took over, including Linlithgow and other courthouses such as Wigtown (1862), Alloa (1863), Forfar (1869) and Stirling (designed 1866, built 1874). The practice was also highly successful at remodelling and designing country houses and the country house work obviously influenced this public commission.

Setting

The former court house is set back from the historic street line which is unusual for a building on the High Street in Linlithgow. This position, as well as the building's and high quality stonework make it a prominent public building close to the heart of the burgh. It is also adjacent to the extensive 1936 county buildings (listed at category B), as well as a police station to the rear (listed at category C) and these three buildings all form a significant multi-period group of civic buildings.

Regional variations

There are no known regional variations.

Close Historical Associations

There are no known associations with a person or event of national importance at present (2016).

Statutory address and listed building record revised in 2017 as part of the Former Scottish Court Houses Listing Review 2014-16. Previously listed as 'High Street, Court House'.

External Links

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