Early Modern period

Bridgend Toll House

This is one of three toll houses in Perth still remaining, although there used to be more. The others still existing are on the Edinburgh Road and on the Dundee Road. There used to be one on the Crieff Road, Balhousie Toll House, opposite Unity Terrace.  It was still there in the late 1970’s and had been converted into a house. It was later demolished along with an arcade of shops to make way for Toll House Gardens, part of the Fairfield redevelopment of Hunter’s Crescent.  There was also one at the end of New Row to catch incoming Glasgow…

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Former Council Offices, Police Station and Tolbooth

This historic site occupies the corner of the High Street and Tay Street. The entrance doorway of the old Perth Town Council Administrative Offices is on Tay Street. There is no plaque there at present, though doubtlessly one will appear in due course. The old police station, on Tay Street, was built in 1879 as part of the Perth Town Council Administrative Offices on the site of the Old Tolbooth. Above the doorway is the inscription setting out what would now be described as the mission statement of a police force. The text was originally on the medieval tolbooth.

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Statue of Prince Albert on the North Inch

Following the death of Prince Albert on December 14th, 1861, Perth Town Council were examining possible memorials. A bust in the council offices was rejected because “none but the privileged few would see it” and similarly a reading room was not considered to be sufficiently permanent. They decided on a statue at the southern tip of the North Inch adjacent to the corner of Charlotte Street and Charlotte Place. The statue is dressed in the robes of a Knight of the Thistle, the highest award of chivalry in Scotland. In his hand he holds the design of the Great Exhibition…

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Former Hospital Lodge in York Place

This B-listed building on York Place, originally the lodge for the 1836 Perth County and City Infirmary was built in 1840 to a design by William Donald Mackenzie, a Perth City Architect, who was responsible for a number of impressive public and domestic buildings within the city. The Infirmary is now the A K Bell Library. The Lodge was was built in a neo-classical style to harmonise with the main hospital building. It was moved and rebuilt on its present site on York Place in 1867. After being derelict for many years it was purchased and restored by the Perth…

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Building at 25 St John Street

According to a plaque beside the left entrance, the building at 25 St John Street, erected between 1846-1847 in the style of an Italian Renaissance palazzi, was designed by David Rhind, (1808-1883), a pupil of Pugin. Pugin worked with Barry on the design, construction and internal furnishings  of the Palace of Westminster. It was originally the local headquarters of the Central Bank, then the main Perth branch of the Bank of Scotland and most recently Lakeland. Rhind is responsible for a building of a similar design on the corner of South Street and Princes Street. The building currently houses a…

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Parmelia Court

This plaque records the 150th anniversary of the sailing to Australia in 1829 of the ship Parmelia to found the City of Perth, Capital of Western Australia. The Parmelia was the flagship of Captain James Stirling who founded and later was Governor of the new colony. The City of Perth, Australia, was named in honour of Sir George Murray of Ochtertyre, by Crieff who was Secretary of the Colonies at that time.

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Green House in High Street

This green-painted building bearing a multi-coloured coat-of-arms is at 28-30 High Street and is on the corner of High Street and Watergate. Pevsner describes this building as late 18th century. He considered it possible that much of the embellishment of the façade might be attributed to early 19th century. (Griffith, J. Perth And Kinross, After Pevsner 2001 p619).

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