24 High Street, Dundee

Sir John James Burnet, designed 1924, executed with detail simplifications by J McLellan Brown, 1931-3. Inter-war classic. Polished Leoch ashlar with Creetown granite detail at lower levels. Large 4-storey block with shops at basement level on Crichton Street. Front to Square symmetrical, advanced 5-bay centre with granite ground floor arcade, blue and gold mosaic vaulted ceiling, tall council chamber windows with channel jointed surrounds rising through 1st and 2nd storeys, central balcony carried on galley cantilever bracket, apron bas reliefs, continuous cantilevered balcony at 3rd floor, prow corbels at centre bay, mutuled cornice, low pavilion roof with 3 dormers. Tripartite-windowed flanking stairhall sections, 5-window wings with 1st and 2nd floor windows vertically linked, main cornice between 2nd and 3rd floors. Shops with original detail to both wings and to each side of council suite entrance at arcade. Single storey

link to Caird Hall set back to far left, with connecting stair pend

to Crichton Street. 3-bay front with Ionic pilasters and 1-bay concave angles containing ground floor quadrants to High Street. Crichton Street frontage, tripartite centrepiece with centre section advanced, giant splayed and keyblocked arch with balcony features, flanking bays 3-light in mullioned grids; flanking wings 7 bays, similar treatment to Square, but ground floor has plain architraved windows with segmental pediments at 2nd and 6th bays. 3-storey link to Caird Hall at right with slight advanced centre bay containing entrance to stepped pend to City Square. Steep platformed slated roofs. T-pattern steel glazing; bronze frames to the shops which have original detail including awning

and lettering at Wallace (No 8) set in Hoptonwood marble surrounds.

INTERIOR: marble-lined staircase with wrought-iron balusters and stained glass by Alex Russell, leading to 1st floor Council Suite. Council Chamber has walnut wallpanels, decorative bronze radiator grilles, cut glass chandelier re-formed from original Town House chandeliers and stained glass by Alex Russell, illustrating events in Dundee's history.