in Scotland, 1868, notes that Hamilton Academy was unusual in this respect, being "a parochial, burgh and a proprietary school combined." In 1866 the Subscribers passed their interest over to the town council who, along with the heritors, managed the school until in 1872 management was transferred to the newly elected School Board of the Burgh of Hamilton under the terms of the Education (Scotland) Act 1872, under the terms of which Act the school was also confirmed (1876) as being a 'higher-class school.' By 1900 the school had not only outgrown the Hope Street building, but the building was also subsiding. Robert Gibson MP recalled during a House of Commons debate (November 1939) that during his time at Hamilton Academy (1890s), the junior department had had to be evacuated due to rapid subsidence of that part of the Hope Street building. The school was therefore re-located to temporary accommodation in a building newly erected by the school board as 'Woodside School', until such time as the question of the Academy's increasing requirements could be addressed. The school's old site on Hope Street being considered too small, a site for a new Hamilton Academy building was secured on Auchincampbell Road. 1910–1972 At a cost of around £40,000 (£53,000 including equipment), construction of the new building began in 1910 (completed 1913) to competition-winning designs by Cullen, Lochhead and Brown (the former's son, Alexander Cullen Jnr., also an architect, attending Hamilton Academy and the latter, William Brown, attending Hamilton Academy 1889–1894) the competition entries being assessed by George Bell, president of the Glasgow and West of Scotland Institute of Architects. In 1911 Hamilton Academy's 'prep' (junior) school relocated to its new, separate smaller building behind the main edifice, before completion, in 1913, of the new senior school building in the French Renaissance style and of red freestone from Corncockle Quarry in Dumfriesshire. The main building, with separate entrances for girls and boys, was arranged over three storeys, with additional basements, providing accommodation for rector's office, board room, offices, classrooms, six laboratories, workshops, art rooms and gymnasia. Of particular note were the Central Hall, the large lecture hall (seating 200, gallery-style and communicating with the laboratories) and library, with reading rooms for girls and boys respectively. In addition, a domestic science block was erected in the same style to the south of the main building and near the girls' school entrance. A feature