Building the Caird Hall

The foundation stone for the Caird Hall was laid on 10th July 1914 by King George V and Queen Mary. However further work on the building didn’t start immediately. It took about a year to start work on the rest of the building. This was mostly due to the fact that the plans for the building hadn’t yet been completed, but also there were no contracts in place for the foundations and other parts of the construction.

The site is ready for construction, 13th April 1915 Ref: TC/CHA/59

The original design of a civic centre on the reclaimed land from the docks was swept aside by Sir James Caird. He paid his money and took his choice of a more straight forward building. The new design of the hall also meant that the buildings around it would also have to be redesigned. In November 1914 James Thomson, the City Engineer and Architect, submitted the new designs. This included two new wings with offices and shops at ground level. There would be a square in between the new buildings and the Town House. The level of the square would follow the height of the High Street and underneath this would be an indoor market. This report and the new plans weren’t approved until March 1915. A month later in April the Council agreed to award the contract for the reinforced concrete foundations and main structure to the Yorkshire Hennebique Contracting Company (based in Leeds). Cement was to be provided by Taylor Brothers (based on Yeaman Shore) and steel from Brown and Tawse (based on Meadowside and Exchange Street). In October 1915 the contract for the main bulk of the stonework and construction was given to Neil McLeod & Son, who were based in Edinburgh. We do know that the stone they used for the Caird Hall was from the Hillside Quarry (now under Kirkstead drive) and Leoch Quarry (just off Templeton Road on the other side of the Dighty). We know this as there was a legal dispute between the builders and the Quarry owners, but this was sorted out quite quickly. Westhall and Wellbank quarries were also mentioned in reports but its not clear if these were used.

Foundations being laid, 28 June 1915 Ref: TC/CHA/82

There was another problem – the war. A couple of months after the foundation stone was laid, war broke out in Europe. The building trade naturally slowed down as young men who would be doing the work enlisted in the armed forces. So bad was the slow down that many bricklayers and stonemasons retrained during the war to find other work. The Caird Hall project however, persevered. However some people thought differently. On 28th October 1915, Mr William Young, the MP for East Perthshire, raised the issued of the building work in the House of Commons. I have been unable to find the exact question he asked, but I believe it related to the spending of public money, as the Council’s retort was that no public money was being spent – only Mr Caird’s money was being spent. The Council had committed to no large expenditure until 1 year after the war. Spurred on by this question the Chancellor of the Exchequer wrote to the Lord Provost. In his letter he stated that he was glad to learn that no further public money would be spent but still thought that the works should be halted. A second letter was received by the Council from the Local Branch of the United Operative Masons Association of Scotland. They were pleading with the Council to continue as the work was needed for men in the industry. In the end the Council reasoned that they were acting within Mr Caird’s conditions of the gift, the necessity to build and start bringing in income, to ease the scarcity of work and that contracts with various companies had altered been entered into. One letter in a file on the matter, written by the Lord Provost to Alexander Wilkie, a Labour MP for the city at the time, states that he thought that Mr Young was put up to asking the question by the Leng family who were part owners of the Kinnaird Hall on Bank Street – a big rival for the new City Hall. As the Kinnaird Hall would lose business the Lord Provosts theory was that the owners of the Kinnaird Hall wanted to delay its opening. (The Kinnaird Hall was later converted to a cinema in 1919 mainly due to fears of lost business when the City Hall would open).

View of the construction site from the Royal Arch, 18 August 1915 Ref: TC/CHA/105

Sadly the council minutes don’t record much more about the construction process. Unlike the Logie Housing Scheme, there are no monthly reports on progress. As this was one larger build or due to the funding it was possibly seen as not needed. Instead we have a different record – a photographic one. In our last blog, The Man in the Boater Hat, we looked at a photograph taken from an album showing the setting up from the foundation stone laying. The album contains images of the Greenmarket, Castle Lane and other areas now under City Square, before they were demolished. Then there’s the laying of the foundation stone and then follows a series of images showing the construction of the hall. And the best thing – they all have dates on them! So we are able to see what happened and when.

The piles for the foundations arrived in April 1915, which fits with the contract being awarded that month. Piling for the foundations began in May and by August they were building up the walls for the ground floor. The first floor was started in September and by October it was fully laid out. Masons were onsite in December as the outer stonework was being laid. Importantly for us at the archives the area that would be our office and stores were started in January 1916. By the following month the 2nd floor was begun, which is the floor for what would become the main Caird Hall and the Marryat Hall. The inner stairs can also be seen being built in March and April 1916.

The laying of the floor for the main hall begins, 3 April 1916 Ref: TC/CHA/174

Sadly the album ends in May 1916. We are not sure if a second album ever existed as it is not in the archives now. We do know that later photographs were taken as there are some negatives in the McManus Art Gallery and Museums Collections. From these we know that by 8th August 1916 the main structure was up to the top floor. The basic structure of the main hall was there from October 1916, as there are interior photographs. The roof was built from mid 1917 to 1918. The columns and the main entrance was built in 1921. As you can see from the photograph below the entrance to the caird hall is actually 2 floors above ground level, so a special entrance had to be built until City Square was finished 10 years later. The entrance was via Castle Court on Castle Street or the steps up from Crichton Street.