The History of Dundee

The Old Town House of Dundee (The Pillars)

Demolished 1932

The Town House was erected in 1734; it was undoubtedly an achievement at the time of its erection, and, indeed, so taxed the finances of the burgh that a portion of its internal finishing remained for twenty years unfinished. The building had a frontage of ninety-eight feet to the High Street, and a depth of fifty feet. It was three storeys in height above the street Level, and, with the exception of the two large rooms at either end of the first floor, was vaulted throughout. The basement was also vaulted in stone, and one of its compartments was used for many years as “The Thief's Hole."

There were also Several cells in the top floor and this was the regular prison until the opening of the new Bridewell in 1836, the condition of the prisoners held there very wretched indeed with as many as fifty prisoners being frequently packed into four or five small cells
Externally, the Town House was a good example of that phase of classic architecture known as the Palladian. designed by William Adam, "the elder Adam," the father of, and associated in business with, the brothers Adam,(The father acquired the estate of Blair-Adam, near Kinross, for which county his eldest son, Robert, sat in Parliament) who, was a fashionable architects of the time, he executed many important buildings throughout the kingdom, including the College, Register House, St George's Church, &c., in Edinburgh; and the Adelphi, Portland Place, and Finsbury Square, in London. The marked peculiarity of their buildings is excessive rustication, which is well exemplified in the old Town House of Dundee.

The street floor exhibited an open vaulted arcade or loggia, formed of seven arched openings with square piers—popularly known as "The Pillars,"—and giving access to several small shops, which extend back to the rear of the building. (The eastmost of these shops was the first office of the Dundee Banking Company, which, in 1788, was plundered by parties who had descended through the floor above. Six persons were apprehended on suspicion; three of these were condemned to death, and two executed, though it was believed they were innocent, and that one more closely connected with the Bank was the guilty party).

The building was surmounted by a spire 140 feet in height, which contained a clock, marked 1735, with four dials and three bells. To these were added,in the early 19th century, at the instance of Mr Adams, a merchant in town, four small "bells to chime the quarters, which were replaced after a fire, in 1857, by thelater peal.

Internally, the building had a wide turnpike stair, from the first landing of which a short corridor branches to the large rooms at either end. These extend the full width of the building, and measured thirty-eight feet by twenty-three feet. The west room was the Council Chamber or Town Hall, of no special pretensions internally, but containing several good pictures, including portraits of Admira Duncan, by Gainsborough; George Dempster of Dunnichen, long Member of Parliament for this district of burghs; and James Johnston, a provost during the 18th century. The large room at the opposite end of the building was for long used as a Sheriff Court-room, butthen became restricted to the meetings of the Guildry, a freemason's Lodge and Justice of Peace Court. The other apartments are small and inconvenient, yet until towards the end of the 19th Century were made to serve for the accommodation of the Magistrates, Town Clerk, Chamberlain, and other officials.

A movement then took place for the erection of a new Town Hall and Municipal Buildings, on a scale worthy of the town, but it resulted only in the immediate necessity being met by erecting a plain block of offices behind, and in communication with the old building. To make way for these, several old buildings had to be cleared away, one of which, on the west of St Clement's Lane, had experienced some vicissitudes of fortune. Its vaults are supposed to have been originally in some way or other an appurtenance of St Clement's Church (which occupied the site of the Town House;) at a much later period it was the Grammar School; afterwards, during the time of the Fencibles and the volunteering consequent on the French war, it became a guard-house—then successively a police office, auction hall, printing office, coffee-rooms, &c.

Thrice since its erection the Town House has been in danger of destruction from fire. The first accident occurred about 1773, when, by the carelessness or recklessness of some persons confined in the prison rooms, the roof was actually in flames, but happily they were extinguished before much material damage was sustained. The second happened during the riots that occurred while the Reform Bill was before Parliament. A party of youths, having prepared a bonfire on the High Street, were dispersed by the police, and the apprehension of some of the ringleaders was the signal for an outbreak of popular frenzy, much more potent than any that had been witnessed in the town since the destructive "meal mob" in 1816. In course of the riot, the windows of the Town House were smashed in pieces, the Police Office (behind it) literally gutted, and all the books and other property either wholly or partially destroyed by fire; and a desperate attempt was made to fire the Town House itself, by forcing a ship's boat blazing up the stair, where fortunately it stuck, and the fames were extinguished.

The site of the additions in the rear of the Town-House embraced what was formerly the Meal Market, which was transferred thence on the erection of the old Episcopal Chapel, from its former location at west end of the High Street. In process of time, the stalls and court of the Meal Market became deserted by the dealers, and were made use of by the Police Board on its first establishment, the entrance being, as before, from the Vault, on the western side of the Town House. On the opposite side of the Vault, within a small walled court, an old lofty house existed, which was formerly the town residence of the Barons of Strathmartine, and hence called " Strathmartine's Lodging."

At the west end of the High Street, on the north side, was an old timber-framed house, almost the only specimen of that ancient style of building, and closely resembling the examples to be found at the top of the Lawnmarket in Edinburgh. It bore the name of "Our Ladie Warkstayris," and would thus appeal to have been an eleemosynary establishment under the auspices of the Church before the Reformation.
Near the middle of the High Street, but inclining to the north side, stood the Market Cross, a tall octagonal pillar surmounted with a unicorn sejant, holding between its fore paws a 'scutcheon of the royal arms of Scotland; but the artist has placed the lion looking to the sinister or left, instead of to the dexter or right side of the shield. Near the top of one of the sides of the column, the arms of the town are placed, with the motto, dei donum, and the date 1586, the time of its erection, and under this there is a peculiar mark incised into the stone, similar to those made by masons when they are performing what is technically called "tasked" work.

The whole was supported by a small octagonal building, surrounded by a flight of six steps. From the gargoyle water-spouts of this building, wine was made to flow on the King's birth-day and other occasions of public rejoicing. As the erection was considered to incommode the street, it was removed in 1777. The lower part was carried away as rubbish, the pillar laid beside the Old Steeple, and the unicorn lodged below the staircase. When the Steeple became a prison, before the erection of Bridewell, the pillar was erected close to the west door, and the unicorn placed again on its top, tastefully garnished with an additional tail, manufactured for the nonce, the new queue waving courage, while the original one lowers coward, as Snowdoun would express it. Until the High Street was lowered, a few years after the opening of Reform Street, the site of the "cross" was pointed out by a peculiar arrangement of the stones in the causeway, indicating the extent of the base, with the figures of the dates of erection (1586) and demolition (1777), occupying the eight divisions of the octagon. It is now marked by a circle in the paving. the "cross" was restored and then set up in the south-west corner of the grounds of the Town's Churches.

When the public wells were erected, in or about the year 1749, one of them was placed on the High Street, near the east side of the "cross," and of course contributed its share to render the passage of the street incommodious. The removal of the "cross" occasioned the removal of the well, which was re-erected in St Clement's Lane, behind the Town House, whence it was cleared away for the Town House additions already referred to.
Taking our departure from the Town House, we may note that, on the north side of the High Street, at the entrance into the overgate, in ancient times were situated a Palace and a Mint. Several sovereigns resided occasionally in the Palace. It subsequently became in succes­sion the property of the Earls of Angus, of the Douglas family, of the Viscounts of Dudhope, and last of the "Bloody Claverhouse," the Viscount Dundee. On the lintel of the chimney of a large upper room there is an uncharged armorial escutcheon, with the date 1507. The Mint was used as such only by Robert III., by whom it was pro­bably erected. According to tradition, the Palace was inhabited by a Mr Watson when Sir James Kinloch took possession of the town in course of the Rebellion in 1745. Mr Watson favoured the cause of the Insurgents, and gave an entertainment at the top of the Mint Court to the officers of a reinforcement that had arrived from France.

After the Battle of Culloden, Watson is said to have succeeded in reaching home in safety, where, for a considerable time, he avoided his pursuers by secreting himself within a recess in the wall of one of the apartments. This was discovered within this century, and was found to contain a decayed pair of old-fashioned trooper’s boots and a rusty broadsword.