Former Council Offices, Shore Street, Gourock

Former Council Offices, Shore Street, Gourock

This complex of municipal buildings, police station, and adjoining commercial block dates from 1923 and 1924. The municipal buildings and police station were designed by the architectural firm Stewart, Tough and Alexander of Greenock, following a design competition held before the First World War. The foundation stone of the municipal buildings was laid on 20 November 1922, and work commenced shortly thereafter. A separate police station was announced to be built adjoining the municipal buildings in November 1922.

The former municipal buildings at nos. 122 Shore Street and 3 and 5 Kempock Place (dated 1923) are designed in a Scottish 17th century style. They are two-storey with attic accommodation and form an asymmetrical corner block with an octagonal corner turret. The police station occupies the western part along Kempock Place, while the adjacent building at nos. 116 and 118 Shore Street (dated 1924) is slightly lower in height and attached to the south elevation of the main block.

The buildings are constructed in squared and snecked, rough-faced red sandstone rubble with polished ashlar dressings. The rear elevation is finished in cream rubble and red brick.

The former municipal buildings present a five-bay front to Shore Street. The centrepiece features a round-arched doorway with chamfered reveals, a two-leaf panelled door, and a basket-arched cavetto surround with floral billets. Above this is a carved heraldic panel with motto, framed by moulded panels and finials. A first-floor window with stepped eaves bears the datestone '1923' and a finial. The bays to the right break the roof eaves in small gableheads, while those to the left are sheltered beneath a broad gable containing a small bipartite window. Large round-arched windows with rounded reveals occupy the ground floor, with transomed and mullioned bipartite windows at first-floor level. The chamfered corner turret features a canted and corbelled oriel above ground floor, topped by a crenellated parapet and finialled pyramidal roof.

Along Kempock Place, the building presents three bays on falling ground. A plain doorway flanked by small tripartite windows occupies the centre bay. The first-floor window breaks the roof eaves in a gablehead, and a broad gabled bay to the right contains paired windows at both ground and first-floor levels with a blank panel to the gablehead. The left bay has a ground-floor window and a tall wallhead chimneystack with tall diagonal flues.

The former police station (3 and 5 Kempock Place) is connected to the main block by a single-storey gabled linking bay. This features an off-centre doorway with chamfered reveals and a window with a carved frieze reading 'Police Station' above. The main police station block comprises three bays over two storeys. Single windows break the roof eaves at first-floor level in semi-circular dormerheads in the left and centre bays. The gabled bay to the right contains bipartite windows. A gabled return elevation to the right features single windows, a secondary doorway, and apex chimneystacks.

The building at nos. 116 and 118 Shore Street presents five bays to Shore Street. Two shop units at ground-floor level frame a central stair doorway, dated 1924. Bipartite and single windows light the residential flats at first and second-floor levels. Two shouldered wallhead chimneystacks rise from this elevation.

Windows throughout the complex vary in design, including small-pane metal windows over metal casements, timber sash and case windows with small upper sashes and plate glass or two-pane lower sashes. Roofs are covered in green slate with zinc dressings, featuring a mixture of apex and mutual chimneystacks and three wallhead stacks. Cast iron rainwater goods with ornamental embossed gutterheads are used throughout.

The interior of the former municipal buildings includes tiled vestibule walls and an open timber stair with stained glass stair windows bearing laurel wreath motifs. Laurel wreath motifs appear as plaster decoration to the walls. The council chamber features an ornamental plaster ceiling with an oval cove.

The municipal buildings occupied a prominent position close to Gourock Station (terminus) and the pier, as shown on Ordnance Survey mapping from 1939. Later Ordnance Survey maps of 1964 show that the rear of the police station had been extended to create a U-shaped footprint, and the five-bay block along Shore Street had received minor extensions to its rear elevation. Photographs from 1975 demonstrate that the complex survived largely intact.

Inverclyde Council vacated the municipal buildings in the 2010s. The buildings were renovated in 2016 and reopened as rentable office spaces (designed by Richard Robb Architects). The police station was vacated at the same time. The properties at nos. 116 and 118 Shore Street continue to have commercial businesses at ground-floor level and residential flats above.