Municipal Offices And Lamp Standards, Albany Street

Municipal Offices and Lamp Standards, Albany Street

A classical civic building designed by Alexander Shairp and completed in 1897. The structure is 2 storeys with an attic above a basement, comprising 7 bays on a sloping site. The main block has a rectangular plan, with an earlier building to the rear connected at the north end to create a U-shaped overall form.

The east and north fronts are constructed of sandstone ashlar. The west rear elevation is grey granite with sandstone dressings, while the south wall is rendered with ashlar quoins at the corners. The building is articulated with a base course at pilaster bases, a string course at the ground floor cill level, and a cornice at the first floor with a stone balustrade and panelled dies above. Full-height dividing pilasters run across the facades, with panelled aprons below the first floor windows.

The east (Albany Street) elevation is symmetrical, showing 2 visible storeys with the basement concealed below street level and the attic lit through a bull's-eye window in the pediment. The principal entrance is flanked by a large segmental pediment with floral decoration in the tympanum, set above a pulvinated frieze articulated and fluted over free-standing semi-fluted Corinthian columns on panelled and corniced pedestals. Behind this sits a doorway with a cornice-lintel and architraved round-arched fanlight above, featuring a fluted keystone at its centre. The ground floor windows are architraved with keystones and pediments above. The first floor contains round-arched windows architraved and flanked by capitalled columns supporting cornices incised into the window openings to create semicircular fanlights with architrave and keystone. The centre bay of the first floor features a Venetian window with architraved opening and keystone, pulvinated frieze and cornice. The balustrade above has round balusters with panelled dies between, surmounted by small segmental pediments at the corners and flanking the main pediment. The blind centre bay of the balustrade carries carved script reading "Municipal Buildings", with a tall pediment above featuring leaf carving and a bull's-eye window in the tympanum.

The north (Campbell Street) elevation is a 6-bay facade grouped 3-2-1. Bays 1 to 3 form a symmetrical gabled return of the principal front, slightly advanced at the centre bay. String courses and the cornice continue from the principal elevation. The base course includes a basement window at bay 3, with an inscription below the ground floor window cills at the centre. Ground floor windows are architraved with cornices above incorporating shallow pediments, with a narrow window at the centre bay flanked by tripartite windows. At the first floor of bay 2 is an empty round-arched niche with flanking capitalled columns, architrave and keystone. Flanking Venetian windows in bays 1 and 3 match the first floor centre window of the principal elevation. A corniced chimney stack is central to the gable, with strip pilasters corresponding to the advanced centre bay below and a datestone between. The gable features moulded skews, stepped at half length. Bays 4 and 5 are gabled with a square window and entrance door at basement (now street) level. The door is architraved with a keystone at the centre and a broken, scrolled pediment above containing a pedimented panel. A ground floor window in bay 4 is tripartite with a cornice incorporating a shallow pediment. The first floor features a Venetian window matching those in bays 1 and 3 to the centre of the gablehead, with a small round-arched window to the right with its cill at first floor cornice level. Bay 6 continues the cornice and string course at sill levels across to the northwest corner. It has a square basement window and a ground floor window that is architraved with frieze and cornice above, plus a first floor architraved window.

The west (rear) elevation of the wing shows 5 bays of 2 storeys over a basement at street level. An intermittent band course runs at eaves with cills to the windows. At basement level are square windows to bays 1, 3 and 4, a goods entrance with 2-leaf timber doors in bay 2, and a tall doorway with a fanlight above in the outer right bay. Ground floor windows occupy bays 1 to 4. The first floor has windows in bays 1, 3 and 4, and a stair window in bay 5 with a transom.

The west (rear) elevation of the main block has its north section obscured by the wing. The visible centre bay and 2-bay south section show a stair window at the centre bay with a central mullion and transom below a fanlight. A gablet breaks the band-coursed eaves with a blind bull's-eye. A 4-flue stack sits at right angles to the eaves adjoining the foot of the gablet skew. The bays to the right of centre contain bipartite windows with cills at both ground and first floors.

The south elevation is a windowless gabled return of the principal elevation, with a short parapet extending from the balustrade on the east front to the skew cope.

The building features plate glass timber sash and case windows in all openings except for a stained glass stair window. The main entrance door is a panelled timber 2-leaf construction, with a 6-panel timber door to the north elevation. The roof is grey slated pitched to the main block, with a lead-covered, slate-hung octagonal base at the centre of the now-removed cupola. The rear wing has a piended, grey slated roof. Corniced stacks with string courses sit at the main block gables, with plain coped stacks at the rear topped with tapered red cans. A square downpipe with decorative brackets sits at the north elevation, and profiled gutters edge the main block rear elevation and rear wing eaves.

The interior features timber double-leaf inner entrance doors with sidelights and a rectangular fanlight above, all glazed with etched glass. Grained dado panelling runs along the vestibule, staircase and upper hallway. A blind arcade at the north wall of the vestibule comprises architraved arches with keystones over marbled and corniced pilasters. The stone stair has a carved timber balustrade with turned balusters and finials at newels. A round-arched stair window contains stained glass with Art Nouveau influence. The upper hallway features an arched screen to the north, architraved and supported on marbled columns with bases and ornate capitals. Architraved and panelled doors lead off from this space. The former council chambers occupy the northeast corner of the first floor, with dado panelling along the walls except for a new south wall that replaced former sliding doors. A large corner chimneypiece with a pedimented overmantle is flanked by capitalled, fluted pilasters, with a niche to its centre containing an ornate ormolu clock. The decorative plaster ceiling features a metal ventilator grille and floral cornice, simply repaired at one corner. Purpose-made furniture, including a semicircular table, remains in place.

Two ornate cast-iron provost's lamp standards flank the main entrance, positioned at the pavement edge. Each has a drum base with flutes and swags extending into a decorated shaft, though the lamp fittings are missing.