Coming to life again ...

Dunoon Burgh Hall has been hidden by scaffolding, dwarfed by huge canes, crawled over, re-roofed, mended, refurbished ... in short, it's not been itself for quite a while and now it's almost regenerated. Tonight, there are clearly people inside, as the renewal project nears completion, and the windows show the clean lines of the interior of the main hall.

The Grade B listed Burgh Hall was designed in the Scots Baronial style by the Glasgow architect Robert Bryden, and opened in 1874 at a key location in the town. With an initial seating capacity of 500 it was for a time the only theatre in Argyll, and until the 1960s the focus of public life in Dunoon. The Burgh Hall is considered to be the town’s most important civic building, marking its 19th century transition to Burgh status and as an important coastal resort.

You can read the rest of the building's history here - there are some interesting photos of what it was like before the renovation began. My first recollection of it was in the early 80s, when the late Donald Dewar came to a hustings organised by the local CND, in which I was active. I remember speaking to him on the stairs and in Argyll Street afterwards - and it seems like another world. 

I'll blip more on this after the fence round the front entrance has gone and also when I can see inside ...