Dundee Sheriff Court is a judicial building on West Bell Street in

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

in Scotland. The building, which operates as the main courthouse for the area, is a Category B

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

The first judicial building in Dundee was the old town house in the High Street which had been designed by William Adam in the

neoclassical style Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassici ...

and completed in 1734. The design of the town house involved a symmetrical main frontage of seven bays facing onto the High Street. The central section of three bays was slightly projected forward and was

pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

ed and there was a central clock tower with a

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spire ...

behind the pediment. The sheriff court was at the east end of the building. In the early 1830s, court officials decided that they needed a dedicated courthouse: the site they selected was on the south side of West Bell Street. Although the architect, George Angus, completed all the design work in the 1830s, due to lack of finance, only the east pavilion, intended to accommodate a police station, and a prison at the rear of the site, were erected at that time. In the early 1860s, construction resumed, using the original plans prepared by Angus, under the supervision of the town architect, William Scott. The main courthouse was designed in the neoclassical style, built in ashlar stone and was completed in October 1863. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of nine bays facing onto West Bell Street. The central section of three bays featured a two-storey

tetrastyle A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cultu ...

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cu ...

formed by four

Doric order The Doric order is one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of t ...

columns supporting an

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

and a

, with the Royal coat of arms in the tympanum. The wings of three bays each were fenestrated with square headed

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double glazing) of glass. History ...

s with

architrave In classical architecture, an architrave (; , also called an epistyle; ) is the lintel or beam, typically made of wood or stone, that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can also apply to all sides, including the vertical members, ...

s and

keystones A keystone (or capstone) is the wedge-shaped stone at the apex of a masonry arch or typically round-shaped one at the apex of a vault. In both cases it is the final piece placed during construction and locks all the stones into position, allo ...

on the ground floor and with round headed windows with architraves and keystones on the first floor. Internally, the principal room was the main courtroom, which featured a

coffer A coffer (or coffering) in architecture is a series of sunken panels in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault. A series of these sunken panels was often used as decoration for a ceiling or a vault, al ...

ed ceiling with ornate plasterwork. A prison at the rear of the site, which had been erected along with the east pavilion in 1833, was demolished in 1927. A new police headquarters was erected on that site in the mid-1970s. A west pavilion, which had been erected along with the main courthouse in 1863, was demolished in 1974. An extensive programme of refurbishment works, carried out at a cost of £3.7 million to a design by

Nicoll Russell Studios Nicoll Russell Studios is an architecture practice based in Dundee, Scotland. The firm was established in 1982 by Andrew Nicoll and Ric Russell as a result of the completion of Dundee Repertory Theatre. The Dundee Repertory Theatre received th ...

, was completed in 1996. The building was then officially re-opened by the

Princess Royal Princess Royal is a substantive title, title customarily (but not automatically) awarded by British monarchs to their eldest daughters. Although purely honorary, it is the highest honour that may be given to a female member of the royal famil ...

in April 1997.

References

{{reflist Category B listed buildings in Dundee Listed government buildings in Scotland 1863 establishments in Scotland Government buildings completed in 1863 Court buildings in Scotland

History

See also

References