Municipal Buildings, 2-8 Buccleuch Street, Dalkeith

Municipal Buildings, 2-8 Buccleuch Street, Dalkeith

A substantial corner building of two storeys, designed by James Alison in 1882 and extended to the east by Charles Henry Greig in 1908. The original structure presents three bays to both Eskbank Road and Buccleuch Street, with a chamfered corner. The 1908 addition is a five-bay ensuite extension to the east, aligned with the original building's ridge line.

The 1882 building is constructed of stugged squared and snecked rubble with ashlar dressings to the front elevations, while the side elevations are random rubble and the rear elevations are brick with ashlar lintels and cills. A base course runs around the building, with a string course between the floors stepped over windows on the north elevation. Windows are finished with roll-moulded surrounds and chamfered cills.

The northwest corner elevation is the most prominent architectural feature. A cavetto moulded shouldered doorway with rope moulded surround is stepped over the Dalkeith Brugh's coat of arms, and is fitted with a two-leaf panelled door. Above this rises a corbelled turret at first-floor level, crowned with a conical roof and weathervane. The turret contains a bowed tripartite window, and the building is finished with a heavy machicolated course and eaves course.

The west elevation to Eskbank Road displays regular fenestration at ground level. At first-floor level, the centre bay projects forward as a gabled corbelled panel, segmentally arched over a ground-floor window, and contains a tripartite window. A circular clock sits in a moulded surround within the gablet head. The gablet is crowstepped with a thistle finial. Two elongated arrowslits pierce the outer bays at first-floor level.

The north elevation to Buccleuch Street features a semicircular-arched window in the left bay at ground level, with rope hoodmould and knot label stops. The centre bay contains bipartite windows at both ground and first floors. Regular fenestration occupies the remaining bays. The centre gable has roll detail to its dormerhead skews (finial now missing) and displays a shield dated "1882" in the gablehead. The outer bays have moulded triangular dormerheads with crescent finials.

The 1908 addition to the north elevation extends five bays, grouped two-three. Doors are positioned out-of-line to the left and right, each with corniced roll-moulded surrounds. Panels above the doors bear the Scotts of Buccleuchs' coat of arms in swan neck pediments. Five stair windows between the left and right bays at ground level step up towards the centre, each with ogeed lintels and a keystone linking the centre window to the string course. A drinking fountain is embedded in the wall below the centre stair window, with the moulded string course stepped over it. At first-floor level, the left and right sections have dormerheaded tripartite windows with coped-crowstepped gables. The left dormerhead bears a shield with two stars and the motto "Mak' siccar"; the right dormerhead bears a shield with three stars, a heart, and the motto "Forward". A bowed balcony with decorative wrought-iron balustrade supporting a flagstaff projects from the centre first-floor window. The two leftmost bays are slightly recessed, containing a two-leaf door to the left with chamfered margin and stop-chamfering at the base, above which is inscribed "Municipal Buildings Erected 1908, R Handyside, Provost". The door is flanked by small windows. A bipartite window occupies the right bay at both ground and first floors. The leftmost section has a dormerheaded tripartite window at first floor, with a shield bearing three escallops in the gablet-skewputted dormerhead.

The east elevation is gabled and adjoined to modern tenement buildings at Nos 12 and 14 Buccleuch Street, which are slightly recessed. The south elevation is also gabled. The east and south rear re-entrant elevations are fenestrated.

Windows throughout are finished as plate glass glazing in sash and case windows. The five stair windows contain stained glass, with the Burgh coat of arms featured on the centre window. Crowstepped gables and crowstepped skews, including the original east gable at its junction with the 1908 addition, characterise the roofline. Coped stacks are positioned at gablehead to east and south, along the ridge of the addition and at the former gablehead stack where it meets the addition. The roof is covered in grey slates with moulded eaves gutters. Some original rainwater goods remain, piercing the string course on the addition.