Thomas Stuart Smith of Glassingall Perthshire." There are six steps to the front door. The wrought metal handrail by Phil Johnston of Ratho Byres Forge was added in 2000. At either side of the steps are two plinths for sculpture and there is an empty sculpture niche on the right side of the building. The frontage to Victoria Road and the Back Walk is in length and is broken by two gables having three-light Venetian windows which are surmounted by pediments. The pediments are inscribed with bronze lettering: "Erected 1873. Trustees George Christie, Provost of Stirling, J. W. Barty Dunblane, A. W. Cox Nottingham and John Lessels Edinburgh Architect." The west side of the building has a blank wall with no windows-this being the architectural interpretation of the Trust Deed of having "space on either side for contingent additions." The back or north wall has three access doors added in 1985-7 during the refurbishment of the building. The Smith had residential accommodation for the curator and this was occupied by a succession of staff until 1959. When the building was requisitioned by the army in 1914, the curator and his family remained in residence. A separate entrance to the curator's house was created by the army through enlarging a window. This is now the staff entrance and the former domestic premises are now offices. There were five public areas to the Smith in 1874. On the left of the entrance was the Reading Room and Library. This was a substantial room measuring 50 by , with an elaborate plasterwork scheme on the ceiling. The ceiling had three sections, each with 15 panels containing casts of the Stirling Heads, alternated with casts of the Arms of Stirling, the monogram of Thomas Stuart Smith and the date of the building. The woodwork was stained to look like oak whilst the groundwork of each panel was in turquoise blue, the whole being enclosed in bands of soft red. The Library walls were in "drab Etruscan" to harmonise with the ceiling. When the Library moved to the new Carnegie building at the Corn Exchange in 1904, this became the natural history room. The plaster ceiling (by John Craigie of Stirling who had the contract for all the Smith plasterwork) was lost in the dry rot outbreak and removed in 1974. This room, renamed the Ballengeich Room or Gallery 1 was the first area of