Police Buildings, St Brycedale Avenue, Kirkcaldy

Police Buildings, St Brycedale Avenue, Kirkcaldy

This is a 2-storey police station with basement, built by William Williamson in 1902 and altered in 1997 by Fife Council Architects. It is a substantially Baroque design with a prominent bell tower, originally constructed as the Burgh Buildings. The main structure is 9 bays wide on its principal north elevation.

The building is constructed of ashlar, channelled at ground level, with squared and snecked rubble to the sides and rear. A moulded base course sits on an ashlar plinth, with a dividing course and mutuled eaves cornice above, finished with a decorative lead blocking course. The windows are segmental and round-headed with keystones and lugs. The ground floor has panelled aprons, and first floor windows on the north, east and west elevations feature similar treatments. A glazed oculus with voussoirs and stone mullions is also present.

The principal north elevation is symmetrical. Wide steps with flanking dwarf walls and cast-iron lamp brackets lead to a slightly advanced centre bay. This bay has full-height channelled, concave-moulded pilasters and outer pilaster strips that flank a round-headed door canopy with panelled soffits. The canopy is corbelled on oversize decorative consoles. A 2-part decorative cast-iron gate provides access to a vestibule with marble-lined walls and floor, timber cornice, decorative plasterwork frieze and dog-tooth cornice. The entrance comprises a 2-leaf, part-glazed panelled timber door with a raised semicircular fanlight and flanking fixed, part-glazed screens. All glazing uses small panes with coloured and decorative glass throughout.

A mutuled dividing cornice sits below a first floor window. This window is open-pedimented, keystoned, lugged and segmental-headed, with decorative drip carving and anchoring scrolls. Its convex apron features a cartouche with decorative mouldings to the heads of the pilaster strips. Above is a mutuled, segmental pediment with a cartouche in its tympanum and flanking curvilinear parapet breaking the eaves. The flanking bays have regular fenestration with channelled outer pilaster strips.

The bell tower rises from the centre above. It has a square lead plinth and mutuled cornice, giving way to an open, octagonal stage with Ionic columns, a bellcast roof and decorative wrought-iron weathervane.

The west elevation on St Brycedale Road is 11 bays, grouped as 1-1-4-5. The bay to the left of centre contains part of the tower. The outer left bay is channelled at ground with channelled quoin strips. Two windows sit at ground level with a further window above at first floor, below a stone balustrade with flanking wallhead stacks. The four bays at centre have keystoned, segmental-headed openings at ground level. The centre section is slightly advanced with a window (converted from a former door) in a moulded surround to the right and a door to the left. At first floor, the advanced section is similarly positioned to the right, with a window in a deeply concave-moulded, segmental-headed opening; a segmental dormerhead breaks the eaves above. Three bipartite windows sit to the left. The lower five bays to the outer right are slightly recessed, with a corniced door at centre and an ashlar strip above incorporating a round-headed, keystoned window at first floor. Regular fenestration flanks these bays, though the window to the outer right at ground level is blinded.

The bell tower is a 5-stage structure. The first and second stages are engaged to the north and east. The first stage is channelled with a round-headed doorway to the south, featuring voussoirs and a deep-set, 2-leaf panelled timber door with fanlight. A glazed oculus, also voussoired, faces west. A band course leads to a corniced second stage with channelled quoin strips and windows to south and west. The third stage has small parapets flanked by coped balustrades and obelisks at outer angles. Above this are reduced, set-back blank courses with diagonal buttresses supporting scroll mouldings of a decorative fourth stage, which features keystoned, pilastered and pedimented openings to each face of the bellcote. A final blank stage has canted corners and a domed cap.

The south elevation is asymmetrical in its fenestration, with two advanced gables flanking a small courtyard. At the rear of the principal north elevation is a round-headed stair window with flanking narrow lights, alongside various other elements including a rounded angle of high squared rubble wall adjoining to the outer right.

The east elevation includes a first floor bay to the outer right that mirrors the outer left bay on the west, with a boundary wall abutting the ashlar ground floor and a window to the left. Immediately to the left is a slightly lower bay with a double stair to a door and a large blind panel in an open pediment above. A wall with a round-arched cart entrance adjoins to the outer left, with an altered cell block beyond.

The windows throughout are 12-pane timber sash-and-case type. The stair window is margined and leaded with coloured glass. The roof is covered in grey slates. Cavetto-coped ashlar chimney stacks have ashlar-coped skews and skewputts. Cast-iron downpipes with decorative rainwater hoppers complete the external detailing.

The interior retains significant decoration and original features. The entrance vestibule features decorative and plain cornices, keystoned arches, panelled dado and parquet floors. A raised centre round-headed timber door with coloured glass leads to a timber staircase with turned balusters and square newels. A tripartite window with coloured glass and Ionic columns and pilasters are positioned at the stairhead.

The first floor vaulted hall, formerly the Burgh Court, has a boarded floor with panelled dado incorporating an architraved, segmental-headed centrepiece with a coat-of-arms at wallhead and doors. A decorative cornice with consoles surmounts a panelled, moulded ceiling with two circular air vents.

The Chief Superintendent's Office, formerly the Provost's room with access to the courtroom, features convex moulded angles to its north wall, a segmental-headed window with panelled soffits, a marble fireplace and timber dado.

A nearby washroom retains original marble washbasins and a corniced timber toilet cubicle with a timber cistern inscribed "Patrick Knox, Plumber, Edinburgh". A dado rail sits above decorative glazed tiles.

The gatepiers and boundary walls are of particular note. Corniced, flat-coped ashlar gatepiers with medallions stand to the north, with similar piers without medallions to the west. A quadrant wall with string course and flanking pedestrian entrances sits to the northeast. Low and high saddleback-coped ashlar, and semi-circular-coped rubble boundary walls complete the setting.