21 Townhall Street, Inverkeithing

This is a 1965 tenement complex designed by R.J. Naismith and Sir Frank Mears and Partners, built in a traditional style. The building is situated at 21 Townhall Street, Inverkeithing and is three storeys high, comprising eight bays. The principal west elevation presents three distinct facades.

The right-hand tenement block (Nos. 9, 9A, 11, 13) is a three-storey, five-bay structure, with wider bays at the upper floors. It is rendered with ashlar dressings, incorporating a deep base course, eaves course, and narrow stone cills. The corners are emphasised by strip quoins, and the skewputts are scrolled. The central tenement block (Nos. 15, 17, 19) is also three storeys high and four bays wide, with wider bays at the upper floors. The construction is of raked, snecked, and squared rubble with rubble and ashlar dressings, and squared rubble quoins. This section includes a segmental-arched pend and two dormers that break the eaves, with catslide roofs. The townhouse to the left (No. 21) is a smaller, two-storey, two-bay structure rendered with a dry dash finish, and has narrow stone cills and a pantiled roof.

The west elevation’s arrangement is symmetrical on the right tenement block, featuring a central moulded doorway leading to the tenement close and two small square windows to either side. The central tenement incorporates a slightly recessed bay with the pend and a small window to the far right. The townhouse has a timber boarded and glazed door, with windows to either side. The south elevation adjoins Nos 2 and 4 Bank Street. The rear (east) elevation is unified with eight bays, a central pend, four doorways providing access to ground floor flats, and regularly spaced large windows. Finally, the north elevation adjoins Nos 25B Townhall Street.

The windows are a mix of nine-pane timber and twelve-pane sash and case timber windows. The roof is pitched, covered in grey slates (with pantiles on the small townhouse), and features straight stone skews and rendered gablehead stacks.

The building contains eight units, designed to accommodate varying numbers of occupants, ranging from single person dwellings to units for six people. Access was unavailable in 2003, and this description is drawn from the original plans.