[1] The first judicial building in Dundee was the old town house in the High Street which had been designed by William Adam in the neoclassical style and completed in 1734.

[3] In the early 1830s, court officials decided that they needed a dedicated courthouse: the site they selected was on the south side of West Bell Street.

[4] Although the architect, George Angus, completed all the design work in the 1830s, due to lack of finance, only the east pavilion, intended to accommodate a police station, and a prison at the rear of the site, were erected at that time.

[5] In the early 1860s, construction resumed, using the original plans prepared by Angus, under the supervision of the town architect, William Scott.

The central section of three bays featured a two-storey tetrastyle portico formed by four Doric order columns supporting an entablature and a pediment, with the Royal coat of arms in the tympanum.