Where can I find architectural drawings of a particular prison or prisons in general?

Apart from publications on Scottish prisons, which reproduce plans of prison buildings, there are three places to try for these: Historic Environment Scotland, the National Records of Scotland, and local archives and libraries.

Published works

The following published works reproduce plans of prisons:

Cameron, Joy Prisons and Punishment in Scotland (Canongate, 1983)

Markus, T. A. ‘Buildings for the Bad, the Sad and the Mad in Urban Scotland, 1780-1830’ in Order and Space in Society: architectural form and its context in the Scottish Enlightenment ed. by T. A, Markus, (Mainstream, 1982)

Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, Tolbooths and Town-Houses: Civic Architecture in Scotland to 1833 (HMSO, 1996)

The (printed) First Report of the Board of Directors of Prisons in Scotland (1840) has an appendix with architectural drawings of Perth Prison.

Historic Environment Scotland (HES)

Use the Canmore website <https://canmore.org.uk/> [accessed 24 April 2024] to look for the drawings of the prison, and then follow the instructions for contacting HES. If your research is on prison buildings in general, remember to search using the terms ‘prison’, ‘jail’, ‘gaol’, ‘Bridewell’ and ‘tolbooth’.

National Records of Scotland

The National Records of Scotland (NRS) hold several hundred architectural drawings of prisons in the Register House Plans (RHP) series, mostly extracted from the records of the Scottish Home and Health Department. Over 300 of them can be found by using the search term ‘prison’ and the reference RHP, but, once again, if your research is on prison buildings in general, remember to search using the terms ‘jail’, ‘gaol’, ‘Bridewell’ and ‘tolbooth’ as well.

Local authority archives

Local authority archives occasionally hold architectural drawings of prisons and similar buildings. If you are researching a particular prison you need to find out the appropriate local archives service(s) for that area. You should not expect to find drawings of prisons in Dean of Guild plans collections, because many central government buildings (including prisons) were exempt from building regulations.