Public Hall, Abbey Place, Jedburgh

Public Hall, Abbey Place, Jedburgh

James Pearson Alison designed this Franco-Renaissance public hall, completed in 1900. It is a 2-storey, 5-bay building situated on ground falling away to the northeast.

The primary facades are constructed of snecked cream ashlar sandstone with Gibbsian window surrounds and keystones. Long and short rusticated quoins articulate the corners. A base course runs along the ground floor, with a cornice above it and a cill course at first floor level. The building is crowned with a full entablature and corniced parapet. The secondary facades are of snecked rubble with stugged ashlar margins. The advanced bays feature pavilion roofs.

The west elevation, facing Abbey Place, forms the symmetrical main front and principal entrance. The central bay is slightly advanced and contains an aedicule doorway with a pair of banded Ionic columns supporting an open pediment. A large 2-leaf door sits at the centre with a round-headed leaded fanlight. The inscription "PUBLIC HALL ERECTED AD 1900 J SWORD PROVOST" is carved above the architrave. Above the doorway, a Venetian window with Ionic column-mullions occupies the aedicule. The flanking bays contain single windows with cornices and pulvinated friezes at first floor. The outer bays are slightly advanced with broad round-headed windows at ground floor and single pediment-headed windows with balustraded aprons above. A plain 3-storey wing projects to the north with a single bay, containing a plain bipartite window and door at ground floor, plain architraved windows to upper floors (tripartite at first floor, bipartite at second floor).

The south elevation displays 2-storey construction (with a raised basement to the east) across 4 bays. The left bay projects slightly and holds a 2-leaf door with Gibbsian surround, keystone and pediment, with a single pediment-headed window above, fenestrated by a balustraded apron. The three bays to the right are symmetrical without parapet but with a cill course at ground. The broad central bay advances and is framed by pilasters supporting a massive pediment. This bay features a gently bowed form with basement, ground floor and balustrade, containing 3 windows in the bow and 3 lights to the basement, with a Venetian window above. The flanking bays have windows at ground floor, left blank above. Rusticated quoins appear to the right (manifesting as long and short quoins on the east elevation). A single-storey concrete screen wall is attached to the east side, adjoining an Information Centre.

The east (rear) elevation contains, at the left, a 2-storey gabled bay above a raised basement with a round-headed window at first floor, to which an iron fire escape is attached. To the right extends a tall 4-bay single-storey and raised basement range containing the hall itself, with tall round-headed windows to each bay (the fourth featuring a blocked round-headed tripartite basement window). Two further bays to the outer right form 2-storey offices with rectangular single windows at ground and one above to the right.

The north elevation features a broad gable to the left and a narrower one to the right with a gablehead stack. The lower portion of the elevation is rendered where an addition has been removed.

Timber sash-and-case windows throughout; those on primary facades have 2-pane lower sashes, whilst the outer ground windows of the entrance elevation feature 6-pane glazing with curvilinear French-style transoms. The hall contains 20-pane Georgian sashes, and offices to the north have plate glass to the front and 4-pane sashes to the rear. The front range possesses steeply pitched French pavilion roofs with heavy lead flashing and decorative cast iron brattishing. Gables appear elsewhere (as described above). Grey-green slates cover the roofs. Ashlar skews and corbel skewputts detail the edges, whilst corniced ashlar chimney stacks with cast iron downpipes serve the building.

The interior contains a lobby with a panelled ticket booth. A stair to the north features wrought iron banisters and grills. The main hall is spanned by a ribbed barrel vault supported by pilasters and consoles. A proscenium arch marks the stage. A gallery on cast iron columns is supported by a second tier of columns bearing a depressed arch above.