The first municipal building in Dumbarton was the old tolbooth on the north side of the High Street which was first mentioned in 1627[2] and re-built in around 1645.[3][4] It initially had separate rooms for the burgh council and for the sheriff court but, in 1794, the council chamber was converted into a prison and the courtroom was subsequently shared.[5] After the tollbooth became dilapidated, the burgh council and the sheriff court relocated to a new courthouse designed by James Gillespie Graham in the neoclassical style on the east side of Church Street in 1826.[4] The tollbooth was then demolished in 1832.[4]
By the mid-19th century Dumbarton Academy had outgrown the building which it had occupied on the west side of Church Street since 1789.[6] In this context burgh leaders decided to procure a combined burgh hall and academy: the site they chose, on the east side of Church Street to the south of the courthouse, was occupied by a building known as College House.[7]
The new offices at the rear of the Burgh Hall
The foundation stone for the new building was laid on 23 June 1865.[8][9][10] It was designed by Robert Grieve Melvin and William Leiper in the Gothic Revival style, built in ashlar stone and completed in two stages: the burgh hall in January 1866 and the academy in August 1866.[6] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with nine bays facing onto Church Street; the central bay, which projected forward, featured a four-stage tower with an arched doorway on the ground floor, an arched opening with a canopy on the first floor, a pair of lancet windows on the second floor and a rose window in the final stage.[1] The tower, which was decorated with octagonalturrets at each corner in the final stage, was flanked by sections which contained five-light mullioned windows on the ground floor, two-light traceried windows on the first floor and dormer windows on the second floor.[1] Internally, the rooms on the ground floor on either side of the tower was used for academic purposes; a corridor emanating from the tower led to a large public hall at the rear of the building and there was a smaller public hall on the first floor at the front of the building.[11]
The building was damaged by a fire on 11 December 1882 but was fully restored the following year.[1] The burgh council relocated to the Municipal Buildings in Glasgow Road in 1903,[12] and the academy relocated to a site formerly occupied by Braehead House in Townend Road in August 1914.[6] The primary department briefly moved back into the building in 1921 but moved out to Townend Road in 1937.[6] The whole building then became a dedicated events venue: concert performers included the contralto singer, Kathleen Ferrier, who made an appearance on 3 April 1945.[13]
After being badly damaged in a fire in 1976,[3] the burgh hall was briefly used as the education offices of the South of Scotland Electricity Board before it then fell vacant and began deteriorating.[1] In the early 1990s, the council proposed complete demolition of the building but the proposal was rejected by the Secretary of State for Scotland in March 1994.[8] A programme of stabilisation works, which involved the demolition of most of the structure behind the façade, was completed in 2008.[8]
After funding was secured from various public bodies including Historic Environment Scotland in October 2015,[14]Lendlease commenced a programme of restoration works to a scheme by Keppie Design.[15] The scheme, which cost £15.7 million, involved the construction of a new structure behind the façade for use as the main offices of West Dunbartonshire Council.[15] The council moved from its old offices at Garshake Road into the newly restored building in July 2018.[15]
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