This is a photograph of the north front of Hamilton Palace. The caption speaks of the need to demolish this historic house. It was in June 1919 that the Trustees of the late 12th Duke of Hamilton presented a Petition to the Court of Session in Edinburgh, seeking authority to sell the fabric and contents of Hamilton Palace, part of the estate held by them in trust.

This is a photograph of the north front of Hamilton Palace. The caption speaks of the need to demolish this historic house. It was in June 1919 that the Trustees of the late 12th Duke of Hamilton presented a Petition to the Court of Session in Edinburgh, seeking authority to sell the fabric and contents of Hamilton Palace, part of the estate held by them in trust. The Petition narrates that in 1889 the 12th Duke leased to the Bent Colliery Company Limited the coal under the Hamilton Low Parks, to be worked on a system, known as the 'stoop and room' method, which would have left the palace and the nearby Mausoleum supported by the pillars of coal known as stoops.

In 1915, however, a further lease was entered into by the then Trustees with the same mineral tenants, which allowed them to work out the stoops under the palace, with the result that at the time of the Petition, the Trustees had been advised that the workings then in progress would damage and might ultimately destroy the fabric of the palace.