A red sandstone building located on the High Street of Penicuik (Midlothian), the Cowan Institute is a community centre which served for a time as Penicuik Town Hall. Completed in 1893, it was endowed by paper-maker Alexander Cowan of Valleyfield (1775 - 1859) to benefit the local community and the project was developed by his family. The building originally provided a range of facilities, including a large hall, library, reading rooms, museum, gymnasium and even baths.
Built in the Scots Renaissance style, the building comprises two principal floors, together with an attic and basement. Above the door is a balcony, intended for public pronouncements, with the crests of Scotland, England and Ireland between its supports and carvings of thistles, roses and shamrocks between the floors. The building also incorporates an octagonal tower with an ogee roof and an unusual clock hanging on iron brackets was installed on the front in 1901, a copy of the clock on the Canongate Tolbooth, which lay opposite the Cowan's family home in Edinburgh.
The trustees of the institute sold the building to Penicuik Burgh Council in 1959. It was converted for use as Penicuik Town, serving in this role between 1963 and 1975 when the local council was abolished. Thereafter the building served as the local registration office, a venue for weddings, and as a court. It passed to the Penicuik Community Development Trust in 2005. The building was C-listed in 2000 and restored in 2021 at a cost of £700,000. Today, it remains a hub for community activities and houses an occasional cinema and is home to the Penicuik Historical Society.
