Renfrew Town Hall, The Cross, Renfrew

Renfrew Town Hall, The Cross, Renfrew

Built 1871–1873 to designs by James Jamieson Lamb and Baillie James Barr Lamb of Paisley, with reconstruction following a fire in 1877 supervised by Loudon, Clerk of Works to the Blythswood Estate. A two-storey building in French Gothic style dominated by a tall six-stage tower. The walls are constructed from snecked cream sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings, and the roof is concealed.

The east elevation presents the principal façade, with the tower positioned to the right and a slightly advanced gabled porch containing a round-arched entrance. The entrance comprises a twelve-panel two-leaf timber door with a timber tympanum decorated with simple tracery and the arms of Renfrew Burgh in the gable head, which breaks the frieze with double-quatrefoil panels. Above sits a tall two-light lancet window at first floor with a round-arched drip mould and a floriated panel in the space between the lancet heads. A frieze of quatrefoil panels runs between the first and second floors. At first floor there is a single round-headed louvred opening, heavily moulded with Gothic tracery.

A blind arcade frieze runs between the second and third floors. The clock face is positioned at the third floor with a hoodmould linked to small corbelled bartizans at the corners, connected by a corbelled parapet pierced by trefoil openings. The bartizans display blind quatrefoils near the base, a moulded band, a long blind oval, and a vertically grooved deep eaves band with moulded cornice and candle-snuffer roofs topped with thistle finials. A timber spire rises above the parapet with gabled lucarnes, broached to an octagonal gableted lantern with a tall fish-scale leaded roof and a ship weathervane.

To the left of the tower a three-bay two-storey range features centrally placed paired lancet-headed doorways with a floriated panel between the lancet heads and quatrefoils in the outer spandrels. Flanking two-light windows are similarly positioned with panelled aprons. Quoin strips divide and terminate the bays, with a cornice at lintel level. A modillioned cornice crowns a plain frieze, with a central arcaded balcony below the central first floor window. All three first floor windows are two-light lancets with floriated panels. A modillioned cornice and parapet with quatrefoil openings complete this elevation, with the roof concealed.

The north elevation places the tower to the left, displaying a two-light lancet at ground level positioned as the first floor lancets on the east elevation, with a date panel inscribed 1871 above. The tower details match those on the east side. The range to the right is two storeys and eight bays, with a window and door and five windows and door at ground floor. The windows are single lancets; the doors, on the left with hoodmould and on the right deeply moulded, reflect this treatment. A plain frieze, modillioned cornice, and first floor cill band run across. At first floor, six plain lancets occupy the centre with flanking two-light windows as found on the east elevation's first floor. A modillioned cornice and parapet matching the east elevation finish this side.

The west elevation is two storeys with three bays, a central double lancet doorway at ground level flanked by single blind lancets, frieze, cornice and cill course consistent with the north elevation. Three plain lancets rise at first floor, with cornice and parapet as on the north, and a central wallhead chimneystack. The top two stages of the tower project above the two-storey range.

The south elevation is divided into two main sections. To the left, six bays feature a later single-storey block built in the re-entrant formed by two projecting bays. A single lancet with timber Y tracery at ground is positioned with cornice and frieze details matching the north and west elevations, and a plain double lancet at first floor. The centre six bays contain paired windows at ground within chamfered surrounds (two on the right cut by the single storey block) and plain single lancets at first. The two bays on the right are advanced in steps, treated as on the east elevation but with hoodmoulds over the ground floor windows. The tower is visible from the third stage upward, its details matching those on the east elevation.

The interior has not been recorded.