Greenock Sheriff Court

Greenock Sheriff Court was built in 1867-69 by John Dick Peddie and Charles George Hood Kinnear. It is a two-storey and attic, seven-bay, symmetrical building in the Scots Baronial style, with a prominent, four-stage square tower, pyramidal roof, and open spire at its centre. A single-storey extension to the north and a two-storey extension to the east are not considered to be of special architectural interest.

The building is T-plan, with single-storey sections adjoining the rear at the north and south to form a square plan. The exterior is faced in sandstone ashlar and features moulded architraves, a base course, a band course, crow-stepped gables to the side elevations, machicolations to the eaves course with decorative water spouts, bartizans to the corners, angled buttresses, and decorative engaged columns at the corners. Segmental-arched windows are at ground floor level, and gabled, pinnacle dormers are at attic level.

The entrance elevation has central steps leading to a segmental-arched doorway with engaged decorative columns and a corbelled balcony above. A machicolated balcony with pierce quatrefoil decoration sits on the tower.

The windows are predominantly replacement plate glass in timber sash and case frames. The roof is covered with grey slates, and there are some wallhead stacks and cast iron downpipes.

The interior, as seen in 2014, is arranged around a central east-facing courtroom on the ground floor, with an imperial staircase to the north. While the room layout has been slightly modified, much of the original 1867 plan remains. The courtroom features 6-panel doors, a high, deeply coved ceiling with moulded and decorative cornicing, segmentally-arched clerestory windows set within deep arches, raked public pew seating, and a timber gallery supported by iron columns. The sheriff's bench is unusually wide, with Ionic column decoration, a panelled back, and a sounding board. Other interior fittings were replaced in the 1990s, including the access hatch from the basement cells to the dock. Decorative cornicing is also present in other rooms and hallways. The staircase has decorative metal balusters and a timber handrail.

A low ashlar boundary wall runs to the west, with metal railings and a pair of pyramidal-capped gatepiers.