Municipal building in Pollokshields, Scotland
The Pollokshields Burgh Hall is a municipal building at the edge of Maxwell Park, Glasgow, Scotland. The burgh hall, which was briefly the headquarters of Pollokshields Burgh Council, is a Category A listed building.[1]
History
The building was commissioned and endowed for future maintenance by the politician, Sir John Stirling Maxwell of Pollok House, as a gift for the people of Pollokshields.[2] The site he selected in Glencairn Drive had formed part of the Old Pollok Estate, which had been home to the Maxwell family for over 700 years.[3]
The burgh hall was designed by Harry Edward Clifford in the Scottish Baronial style[4] and built with dark red sandstone from the Ballochmyle Estate in Ayrshire.[5] A ceremony was held at which Maxwell laid a memorial stone to commemorate the opening of the burgh hall and also the opening of Maxwell Park, which he had also gifted to the local people, on 25 October 1890.[6] The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage facing Glencairn Drive; the main hall, which projected forward was on the left; the right bay featured a gabled porch with a round-headed doorway on the ground floor and a tower above; there was a bartizan on the right hand corner of the tower.[1]
The building was initially used as a masonic meeting place by masonic lodge no. 772[7] and was also briefly used as the headquarters of the independent burgh of Pollokshields until 1891 when the burgh was absorbed into the city of Glasgow in 1891.[2] It was extended in 1935.[1]
After functioning as a day centre for Glasgow Corporation and then, from 1975, for Strathclyde Regional Council, it was deemed surplus to requirements in 1982 and acquired the Pollokshields Burgh Hall Trust for a nominal sum in 1986.[8] Following refurbishment by the trust it reopened for community use in 1997.[8] The lower ground floor was refurbished and converted for conference use with financial support from the National Heritage Memorial Fund in the late 1990s.[9][10] The actress, Keira Knightley, attended her brother's wedding at the hall in April 2011.[11]
Architecture
The dominant external feature of the building is the 60-foot (18 m) high tower while the entrance porch exhibits the Maxwell family coat of arms flanked by two Scottish lions.[5]
