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Municipal Buildings, Gourock

architectural structure in Inverclyde, Scotland, UK

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ56634690 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Municipal Buildings are based in Shore Street, Gourock, Inverclyde, Scotland. The structure, which is used as a business centre, is a Category C listed building.

History

Following significant population growth, largely associated with the status of Gourock as a fishing port, the area became a police burgh in 1858: the burgh commissioners initially established their offices in Shore Street. In the early 20th century the commissioners decided to procure purpose-built municipal chambers for the burgh: the site they selected was further north along Shore Street.

In 1914, the commissioners launched a design competition for the new building for which one of the most elaborate designs, involving a tall clock tower and a vaulted council chamber, was submitted by Alexander Nisbet Paterson. The architectural firm selected was Stewart Tough & Alexander but work on site was delayed by the First World War and construction work only started in the early 1920s.

The new building was designed in the Scottish Baronial style, built in red sandstone rubble masonry with ashlar dressings and was completed in 1924.

The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto Shore Street; the central bay featured, on the ground floor, a deeply recessed doorway with a cavetto-surround supporting a panel with a carved coat of arms; there was a cross-window on the first floor and a date stone above. The other bays were fenestrated with Diocletian windows on the ground floor and cross-windows on the first floor. There was a gable containing a small two-part window above the first two bays on the left and a short corbeled and castellated tower with a hexagonal roof on the corner to the right.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Municipal Buildings, Gourock” as architectural structure in Inverclyde, Scotland, UK. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1858, 1914, 1924—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Municipal, Buildings and Gourock can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as architectural structure in Inverclyde, Scotland, UK. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q56634690. The first chronological checks are 1858, 1914 and 1924.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Municipal Buildings, Gourock” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.