The first municipal building in the town was a
medieval tolbooth with a large
bell tower: it was demolished on the orders of the
Lord Protector,
Oliver Cromwell, to provide improved access to
Linlithgow Palace, in 1650. Following the
Stuart Restoration, burgh leaders decided to commission a new town house: the new building was designed by John Smith in the
neoclassical style, built by
Robert Mylne in
ashlar stone and was completed in late 1670. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with seven bays facing onto The Cross; the central bay featured a square headed doorway on the first floor which was originally accessed by a single flight of stone steps and was surmounted by a pediment with the burgh
coat of arms in the
tympanum. A six-stage tower, which, as well as being
balustraded, was originally surmounted by a
belfry and
weather vane, was erected to the immediate north of the town house in 1678. Following a serious fire in 1847, the town house was restored to a design by
Thomas Brown in 1848. Court hearings, which had previously taken place within the building, were relocated to the new
Linlithgow Sheriff Court on the south side of the High Street in 1863. Following the implementation of the
Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 which established a uniform system of
county councils in Scotland, the new
West Lothian County Council established its headquarters in the northern wing which became known as the county hall. and
Queen Elizabeth II, accompanied by the
Duke of Edinburgh, visited the town house and signed the visitors' book in July 1955. Much of the original interior of the complex was removed in a modernisation project carried out to a design by
Rowand Anderson Kininmonth & Paul in 1962; following the works, the complex, consisting of the town house and the northern wing, became known as the Linlithgow Burgh Halls. The complex continued to serve as the headquarters of the burgh council for much of the 20th century but ceased to be local seat of government after the enlarged
West Lothian District Council was formed at
Bathgate in 1975. It was in the Burgh Halls that, in January 1979, the
Scottish National Party launched its "Yes for Scotland" campaign in anticipation of the forthcoming
Scottish devolution referendum. An extensive programme of works, undertaken to a design by
Malcolm Fraser, funded in part by
Heritage Lottery Fund and costing £5.2 million, was completed in September 2011: the works led to the creation of an art gallery on the first floor, two function rooms and a roof terrace. The two function rooms were named the Baillie Hardie Hall (on the second floor of the old town house) and the Provost Lawrie Hall (in the northern wing). The building was also used as a location for the
legal drama ''
Garrow's Law'' in 2011. ==See also==