Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court
Judicial building in Kirkcaldy, Scotland
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court, formerly known as County Buildings, is a judicial building on Whytescauseway in Kirkcaldy in Scotland. The building, which continues to operate a courthouse, is a Category B listed building.[1]
| Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court | |
|---|---|
The building in 2017 | |
  Shown in Fife | |
| 56.1093°N 3.1631°W | |
| Location | Whytescauseway, Kirkcaldy |
| History | |
| Built | 1894 |
| Site notes | |
| Architect | James Ross Gillespie |
Architectural style | Scottish baronial style |
Listed Building – Category B | |
Official name | Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court including boundary wall and excluding large extension to east, Whytescauseway, Kirkcaldy |
| Designated | 27 February 1997 |
| Reference no. | LB44108 |
History
Until the late 19th century, court hearings were held in the old townhouse and jail at the junction of High Street and Tolbooth Street which was completed in 1826.[2] After finding this arrangement unsatisfactory, court officials decided to commission a dedicated courthouse: the site they selected was on the south side of Whytescauseway.[3]
The new building was designed by James Ross Gillespie in the Scottish baronial style, built in rubble masonry at a cost of £9,000 and was officially opened by Sheriff Aeneas Mackay on 21 May 1894.[4][5] After it opened, it was initially known as "County Buildings".[6]
The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage of three bays facing onto Whytescauseway. The centre bay featured a three-stage tower: there was a round headed doorway with voussoirs and a keystone in the first stage, a mullioned and transomed window in the second stage and a mullioned window with a Diocletian window above in the third stage, all surmounted by a balustrade. To the right of the centre bay there was a four-stage octagonal turret, which was projected forward from the upper floors of the building: there a small casement window in the first stage, a series of lancet windows in the second stage, blind walls with corner colonettes in the third stage, and a series of small windows in the fourth stage, all surmounted by a conical roof and a weather vane. The left-hand bay, which was hexagon-shaped, was fenestrated by sash windows on both floors and surmounted by a pediment with a hexagon-shaped roof behind. The right-hand bay was fenestrated by a pair of sash windows on the ground floor and by a nine-pane window on the first floor, all surmounted by a stepped gable and a finial. Internally, the principal room was a double-height courtroom on the first floor, behind the nine-pane window.[7]
A large extension, with a blind canted wall on the left, a round headed doorway in the centre and a full-height round headed atrium to the right, was added to the east of the main building in 1982.[8][9] An annexe to the sheriff court, incorporating two new criminal courtrooms as well as a new custody suite, was opened in the former police station on St. Brycedale Avenue on 29 July 2020.[10] The building on Whytescauseway remains the main venue for hearings of the Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court.[11]