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Dunfermline City Chambers
Dunfermline City Chambers
	Dunfermline City Chambers
Location	3 Bridge Street, Dunfermline
Coordinates	56°04′15″N 3°27′50″W / 56.0708°N 3.4640°W
Built	1879
Architect	James Campbell Walker
Architectural style(s)	French Gothic style
Listed Building – Category A
Designated	12 January 1971
Reference no.	LB25973
	Shown in Fife

Dunfermline City Chambers is a municipal facility at the corner of Bridge Street and Kirkgate in Dunfermline, Fife. The building, which serves as home to the local area committee of Fife Council, is a Category A listed building.^[1]

History

The building was commissioned to replace the old town house in Bridge Street which had been completed in 1771.^[2] After rapid industrial growth in the local area,^[3] civic leaders decided they needed a more substantial facility and the old town house was demolished, to make way for the current building.^[2]

The foundation stone for the new building was laid on 11 October 1876.^[2] It was designed by James Campbell Walker in the French Gothic style, built by Messrs W & J Hutchison and completed in May 1879.^[4] The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage with twelve bays facing onto Kirkgate; the southern section featured a doorway with an octagonal turret above in the south east corner, while the northern section featured an elaborate doorway with a balcony and prominent four-face clock tower with bartizans in the north east corner.^[1] The structure included heraldic stones, recovered from the demolished 18th century town house, which may have originated from the now derelict Dunfermline Palace, a few hundred yards to the south.^[5] The stonework on the Bridge Street façade included busts of Malcolm Canmore, Queen Margaret, Robert the Bruce and Elizabeth de Burgh.^[6] Internally, the principal room was the council chamber on the first floor: it incorporated an oak hammerbeam roof.^[1] There were police cells in the basement of the building.^[6]

The building was the headquarters of the royal burgh of Dunfermline until it was replaced by Dunfermline District under the wider Fife Regional Council in May 1975.^[7]^[8] The building ceased to be a seat of government after the district council was abolished in 1996, under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994.^[9] Since then, the building has served as the home of the local area committee of Fife Council,^[10] as a venue for marriages and civil partnerships^[11] and as the local registration office.^[12]

Works of art in the city chambers include Sir Joseph Paton's painting of Queen Margaret and Malcolm Canmore.^[13]^[14]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Historic Environment Scotland. "3 Bridge Street, City Chambers (Category A Listed Building) (LB25973)". Retrieved 13 April 2020.
^ ^a ^b ^c "History of Bridge Street" (PDF). Royal Dunfermline. pp. 13–18. Retrieved 13 April 2020.
^ Simpson, Eric (1987). The Auld Grey Toun – Dunfermline in the time of Andrew Carnegie 1835–1919. Carnegie Dunfermline Trust. p. 85. ISBN 978-0947559090.
^ Beattie, George. "James Stewart & Sons, Builders & Quarrymasters". Dunfermline Historical Society. Retrieved 13 April 2020.
^ "Ten town halls to visit". The Telegraph. 29 November 2008. Retrieved 13 April 2020.
^ ^a ^b "Dunfermline Guide Book" (PDF). p. 34.
^ "Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973". Legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
^ McEwan Bert Dunfermline: The Post-War Years p.16.
^ "Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994". Legislation.co.uk. Retrieved 13 April 2020.
^ "Baby Jamie snoozes through his first council meeting". The Courier. 8 September 2016. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
^ "Weddings in Fife" (PDF). Fife Council. p. 8. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
^ "Dunfermline Customer Service Centre - City Chambers". Fife Council. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
^ "The Patons of Dunfermline". Royal Scottish Academy. 26 June 2020. pp. 22–23. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
^ Paton, Joseph Noel. "Queen Margaret and King Malcom Canmore". Art UK. Retrieved 23 September 2020.