A grand rectangular Edwardian Beaux-Arts building in the city centre, Perth City Hall occupies an entire street block between St. John's Shopping Centre and St. John's Kirk (Kirkside), bounded to the north by St. John's Place and the south by South St. John's Place. This Category B-listed building was the work of H.E. Clifford & Lunan 1908-11 as the primary concert venue for Perth, replacing an earlier building constructed in 1845. Described as 'ruthlessly symmetrical' and constructed in Kingoodie sandstone, the principal front faces St. John's Shopping Centre across on King Edward Street and features four pairs of Ionic columns, a bold dentil moulding below a parapet, with two pairs of giant cherubs above, holding the ends of swags. There are pairs of supplementary entrances on the north and south elevations of the building. The interior is baroque and comprises two halls, the larger with gallery seating accessed from an upper level, choir seating and an organ, which was removed in 2006.
Disused since the opening of the Perth Concert Hall in 2005, proposals to convert the building into a shopping centre subsequently fell through, and its continued existence has proven a point of debate in Perth; with some suggesting the building should be demolished to create a civic square in front of St. John's Kirk, while others taking the view that it represents a distinctive and historic component of the townscape which must be retained and reused.
The old City Hall was one of the Scottish venues for a speech by the noted American abolitionist Frederick Douglass (1818-95) during his British tour of 1846.
