Langholm Town Hall was built in 1811 on the site of the Old Tolbooth, which was in existence by 1726. The ground floor originally contained three prison cells, with the Town Hall above, but the interior has since been radically altered for local government use. The civil engineer, Thomas Telford, was born in Glendinning a few miles to the north of Langholm, and a room in the building is named after him. In it hang portraits of members of a remarkable local family, the Malcolms. Of humble origins, four of the seventeen children went into the Navy, two into the East India Company, two became independent merchants in India, one became an Anglican priest in England, and one took up local employment in Scotland. Four of them achieved knighthoods!