The first municipal building on the site was an 18th-century town house which was built on land acquired from
Lord Cathcart. The works were carried out by a local builder, James Wallace, for £240 and the building was completed in 1765. Lord Cathcart insisted that the local masonic lodge should be allowed to hold meetings in the building. An organ designed and manufactured by
Forster and Andrews, with three
manuals and 27
stops, was installed in the building in 1862. Following significant population growth, largely associated with the
shipbuilding industry, the burgh leaders decided in the late 1870s to procure new municipal buildings: after some debate, it was decided to acquire existing properties around the town hall, to demolish these properties and to wrap the new municipal buildings around the old town hall. The design competition, for which there were over 80 entries, was won by
H & D Barclay. The foundation stone for the new building was laid by the provost, Dugald Campbell, on 6 August 1881. It was designed in the
Italianate style, built in
ashlar stone at a cost of £197,061 and was completed in 1886. The building was badly damaged in the
Greenock Blitz in May 1941 during the
Second World War: the tower on the northwest corner survived but a tower on the southwest corner was completely destroyed. Two pediments on the south façade were also destroyed. They were never rebuilt. Following completion of a major programme of restoration works to the ground floor of the complex to a design by BMJ Architects, a new customer contact centre was re-opened by
Queen Elizabeth II in July 2012. Repairs to the deteriorating sheriff's courtroom, which had closed in December 2009, began in July 2018 and renewal of the glazing above the carriageway that runs through the complex began in July 2020. Works of art in the municipal buildings include a landscape painting of
Gourock by
John Fleming and a painting depicting a house in West Blackhall Street in Greenock by
Norman Macbeth. ==See also==