76 High Street, Paisley

The building is a former drill hall complex (now disused), designed by Thomas Graham Abercrombie in the Scots Baronial style and built around 1899. It comprises a symmetrical 3-storey and attic office and recreation section to the street (southeast) with a large, red brick, shallow segmental-arched roofed drill hall to the rear and a small gabled secondary hall to the southwest, linked to the drill hall by a single storey passage.

The office and recreation area is in the front section of the building, and is built of squared sandstone rubble with red sandstone ashlar margins, with a dentilled cornice and gabled dormers. There is a 3-storey symmetrical central section with slightly advanced, flanking 2-bay gabled outer wings which have corbelled parapets and corner bartizans. The bartizans to the outer bays rise from the first floor and have bellcast roofs. The gables are topped with semi-circular open pediments and the first floor windows have moulded architraves, round-arched pediments and balconies with metal railings.

The central main entrance is set in a keystoned round-arched surround, with a Doric-columned doorpiece with a segmental pediment above, which is broken by a small window frame and round-arched pediment above. The first floor window surrounds above this are keystoned with moulded architraves and floating cornices, and the dormers have thistle apices.

The roof has red slates and a central, leaded Art Nouveau bellcote. Some windows are currently boarded over, with the remainder being predominantly small-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows. There are rooflights in the drill hall itself and the small hall to the southwest. The small hall has small round windows to the gables.

Parts of the interior were seen, although some areas were inaccessible due to safety concerns because of the condition of the interior. Some of the individual rooms within the office and recreation section retain their timber panelling and decorative cornicing. There are also some 6-panel timber doors and panelled timber window shutters, along with dog leg staircases with timber banisters and metal balusters. The drill hall to the rear is entered via a pair of segmental-arched openings at the southeast end of the hall, below the viewing platform. The hall has wide, metal A-trusses supporting the roof and a series of smaller rooms are located at the northwest end. There is an enclosed rifle range on the northeast wall. The timber bracketed viewing platform overlooks the drill hall and is entered via a pair of round-arched entrance openings. There are rooms flanking this platform each with a window overlooking the hall. The small, secondary hall to the southwest is timber lined with a timber roof.

There is a low rubble boundary wall to the street surmounted by metal railings, some with thistle baluster heads.