Alloa Town Hall is a municipal building in Marshill,

Alloa Alloa (Received Pronunciation ; Scottish pronunciation /ˈaloʊa/; , possibly meaning "rock plain") is a town in Clackmannanshire in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It is on the north bank of the Forth at the spot where some say it ceases to ...

, Scotland. The structure, which was the meeting place of Alloa Burgh Council, is a Category C

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

History

Until the late 19th century Alloa lacked a public hall capable of accommodating a large number of people, so when a director of John Paton Son and Co., John Thomson Paton, offered to pay for a town hall as a gift to the town, burgh leaders agreed to accept the offer: the site they selected was occupied by some large private houses. The new building was designed by

Alfred Waterhouse Alfred Waterhouse (19 July 1830 – 22 August 1905) was an English architect, particularly associated with Gothic Revival architecture, although he designed using other architectural styles as well. He is perhaps best known for his designs ...

in the

Renaissance style Renaissance architecture is the European architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 16th centuries in different regions, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of Ancient Greece, ancient Greek and ...

, built by G. & R. Cousin in

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

stone at a cost of £18,008 and completed in 1889. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto Marshill; the central section of three bays, which projected forward, featured a round headed doorway on the ground floor,

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid sup ...

ed windows on the first floor, mullioned windows flanked by

Ionic order The Ionic order is one of the three canonic classical order, orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric order, Doric and the Corinthian order, Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan order, Tuscan (a plainer Doric) ...

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s on the second floor and mullioned windows on the third floor with a gable above. There was a hall block behind the front block with an

octagon In geometry, an octagon () is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, which alternates two types of edges. A truncated octagon, t is a ...

al chimney at the north end. Internally, the front block contained the council chamber on the first floor and an art school on the upper floors, while the hall block contained an assembly hall which accommodated a public library as well as an organ designed and made by

Forster and Andrews Forster and Andrews was a British organ building company between 1843 and 1924. The company was formed by James Alderson Forster (1818–1886) and Joseph King Andrews (1820–1896), who had been employees of the London organ builder J. C. Bisho ...

. The building continued to serve as the headquarters of Alloa Burgh Council throughout the first half of the 20th century but ceased to be the local seat of government when the council moved to Greenfield House at Mar Place in 1952. The building continued to be used as an events venue and the

rock band ''Rock Band'' is a series of rhythm games first released in 2007 and developed by Harmonix. Based on their previous development work from the Guitar Hero, ''Guitar Hero'' series, the main ''Rock Band'' games have players use game controllers mod ...

, the Silver Beetles, performed at the town hall during a tour of Scotland as the backing group for the pop singer

Johnny Gentle John Askew (8 December 1936 – 29 February 2024), known as Johnny Gentle and later Darren Young, was a songwriter and crooner from Liverpool, England. Life and career John Askew was born on 8 December 1936 in Liverpool, where he also grew up ...

in May 1960. However, the organ was removed from the building and destroyed in January 1970.

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

met civic officials at the town hall during a visit to the town to re-open the refurbished

Alloa Tower Alloa Tower in Alloa, Clackmannanshire, in central Scotland, is an early 14th-century tower house that served as the medieval residence of the Erskine family, later Earls of Mar. Retaining its original timber roof and battlements, the tower is ...

in July 1997. A major programme of refurbishment works at the town hall, including redecoration and the upgrading of the heating system, was completed in summer 2011. A plaque to commemorate the visit of the ''Silver Beetles'' was installed on the front of the building and unveiled in March 2022.

References

{{reflist Alfred Waterhouse buildings Government buildings completed in 1889 City chambers and town halls in Scotland Alloa Category C listed buildings in Clackmannanshire Listed government buildings in Scotland 1889 establishments in Scotland

History

See also

References