Gatepiers And Railings, Former Police Station And Former Fire Station Including Boundary Wall, 15, 16 Victoria Park Drive South Former Whiteinch Burgh Hall, 35 Inchlee Street

Gatepiers And Railings, Former Police Station And Former Fire Station Including Boundary Wall, 15, 16 Victoria Park Drive South Former Whiteinch Burgh Hall, 35 Inchlee Street

This is a set of Scottish Renaissance public buildings from 1894 with later additions, occupying a large site bounded by Victoria Park Drive South, Inchlee Street and Medwyn Street. The complex comprises a 4-bay, 2-storey burgh hall with upper breaking eaves in an L-plan, a single-storey former police station to the south, and a 3-storey former fire station and accommodation block linked to the police station at the south-east corner of the site. A circa 1905 extension to the hall in similar style was added to the south-west. The buildings are constructed in squared and snecked, bull-faced red sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings.

The burgh hall features a slightly splayed gable-ended entrance elevation to the east. The central round-arched doorway has a prominent keystone and carved roundels, with a corniced and balustraded balcony above. A large quadripartite transomed and mullioned window with a triangular pediment and inset escutcheon is set within a large recessed round-arch gable apex. Advanced corniced square-plan towers, reduced in height, with prominent single fluted and scrolled corbels to the upper section flank the central bay. A pedimented doorway stands to the left, and an advanced single-storey piended section to the far left features a blocking course and bipartite window.

The north elevation facing Victoria Park Drive South has four bays with a curved pedimented doorway to the far left, a canted bay with a single window to the right, and an advanced entrance with door to the far right. Narrow battered buttresses extend to the low eaves course between each bay. Tall triangular and curvilinear pedimented breaking eaves dormers rise above transomed and mullioned bipartite windows with moulded cills. Similar breaking eaves dormers appear on the south elevation.

Windows throughout are predominantly plate glass in timber sash and case frames. The building has a swept pitched roof covered in grey Scots slates in diminishing courses, with the base of a removed cast-iron roof lantern at the centre ridge and a coped ashlar chimneystack to the west gable. Cast-iron rainwater goods are retained.

The interior features a coffered ceiling, good polychrome plasterwork, and a raised stage with a chamfered plaster arch surround.

The circa 1905 extension to the hall is a small 2-storey rectangular-plan building linked to the 1894 hall to the south-west. Its south (entrance) elevation is a 3-bay gable end with a further round-arched entrance bay recessed to the left. Bipartite windows flank a narrow central window. A dentilled string course with returns runs below the 1st floor, which has a pedimented tripartite window and a masonic crest. The gable apex comes to an arrow point with corniced ashlar skews and skewputts. The pitched roof is covered in grey slates with two louvred ridge lanterns and a coped stack to the north gable. Raised lugged margins are visible on the ashlar dressings.

The police and fire stations from 1894 form a single and 3-storey, U-plan police station incorporating a block of living quarters to the south. This was restored in 2000 with the upper storeys converted to sheltered accommodation. The police station entrance is in the south re-entrant angle with a canted porch. A boiler house with pitched slate roof stands to the north of a small courtyard.

The southern block has four bays with a string course featuring downpipe mouldings and a band course to the upper storey. Raised chimney flue details appear at wallhead gables to the south and east, with a blind gable to the west. Plate glass timber sash and case windows and flush ashlar dressings are used throughout. The former fire station entrance with a raised lintel surround is to the south central bays, where the door was blocked and replaced with a sash and case window in the mid-20th century. The pitched roof is covered in replacement slates with coped ashlar stacks and cast-iron rainwater goods.

The boundary wall and gatepiers form a low coped wall to the north and east with original cast-iron railings and gates. Squared, coped stone piers with square bell caps and ball-finials mark the gates to the north and east. A stepped and coped wall with an entrance to the police station courtyard stands to the east. Square, coped gate piers with ball-finials to the south-west corner support a cast-iron double gate with scroll motifs.