[1] The building was commissioned and endowed for future maintenance by the politician, Sir John Stirling Maxwell of Pollok House, as a gift for the people of Pollokshields.

[3] The burgh hall was designed by Harry Edward Clifford in the Scottish Baronial style[4] and built with dark red sandstone from the Ballochmyle Estate in Ayrshire.

[1] After functioning as a day centre for Glasgow Corporation and then, from 1975, for Strathclyde Regional Council, it was deemed surplus to requirements in 1982 and was acquired by the Pollokshields Burgh Hall Trust for a nominal sum in 1986.

[8] The lower ground floor was refurbished and converted for conference use with financial support from the National Heritage Memorial Fund in the late 1990s.

[11] The dominant external feature of the building is the 60-foot (18 m) high tower, while the entrance porch exhibits the Maxwell family coat of arms flanked by two Scottish lions.