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Summary

Description

Peddie and Kinnear, 1875-6 with later additions and alterations. 4-storey, 17-bay, symmetrical Italianate hotel with 7-stage entrance tower with belvedere to centre and terminating in symmetrical pyramidally-roofed, 5-storey, blocks. Yellow ashlar sandstone. Base course, projecting, cill height, dividing cill bands, eaves course. Gabled roof with timber bracketed, barge boarded, overhanging eaves. Plain, projecting margins to openings.

W (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: 7-stage engaged entrance tower to centre; advanced porte-cochere to ground floor with raised quoins, framing stone steps to main entrance, modern steel and glass portico to front of porch; stone-mullioned, bipartite windows to 2nd, 3rd and canopied 4th stage with small window to 5th stage above; clock faces to 6th stage flanked by small attic bays; free-standing 7th stage, tall semicircular-arched openings to belvedere, plain corner piers supporting low pyramidal roof. Symmetrical flanking 5-bay blocks; advanced, cast-iron structure arcade to ground floor with lean-to roof; regular fenestration to upper floors; semicircular-headed roof dormers; 3-storey, advanced, canted bays centre. 4-storey with attic, 3-bay outer pavilion blocks with pyramidal roofs; regular fenestration except bipartite windows to 1st floor.

E (REAR) ELEVATION: irregular fenestration, multiple advanced, 3-bay, gable ends, large advanced bay to outer left. Single storey modern additions running full length.

N (SIDE) ELEVATION: 6-bay, divided into 2, 3-bay blocks, regular fenestration. Advanced, 2-storey dining wing, added 1884; canted central bay flanked by bay to left abutting modern glazed dining room extension, bowed bay to right; mullioned and transomed windows; balustraded parapet.

S (SIDE) ELEVATION: 9-bay, divided into 3, 3-bay blocks, regular fenestration; 2-storey, advanced canted bay to block to left, modern addition to ground; canopied entrance to centre block; gable end of 2-storey, 9-bay elongated modern wing abutting block to right.

Predominantly 4-pane, timber-framed, sash and case windows. Grey slates, lead flashing. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: restored and refurbished 1ate 1990s; ornate original plasterwork retained to public rooms on ground floor, excluding remodelled ball room to rear, tapered pilasters applied to walls of S function room of particular note.

SOUTH LODGE: single storey, 3-bay, rectangular plan lodge. Piended, slate roof with gables breaking eaves. W facing, bipartite windows flanking door to centre with large gable above, oculi to gablehead, pierced barge boarding to gable terminating in carved medallions. Central door to rear elevation, flanking windows, 2 small roof dormers. Blank sides with gables breaking eaves. Plain interior.

WEST LODGE: 3-bay, asymmetrical, gabled lodge. N facing. Yellow ashlar sandstone, overhanging eaves with exposed rafters. 2-storey, bay to left with advanced canted bay to ground floor with corbelled roof, window above. Single storey, 2 bays to right; single window to left; open, gabled timber porch to right, recessed entrance. Advanced canted window to Perth Road gable end, blind to E end, rear not seen 2001, interior not seen 2001.

GATEPIERS AND BOUNDARY WALL: pair of square-plan, ashlar piers; plinth, chamfered column, projecting cornice, swept cap terminating in ball finial. Low, coped, rubble wall to Perth Road, high, coped, rubble wall to Newton Loan.

Statement of Special Interest

Through their vast architectural output Peddie and Kinnear held pre-eminence throughout the late 19th century as Scotland's foremost practice. Working in various style from Scots Baronial to classicism and Italianate, as at the Hydro. The design of the Hydro is reminiscent of the great 19th century hotels of the Venetian Lido. Despite its scale the Hydro retains a remarkable cohesion to its Palladian, hierarchical formula. The origins of the Hyrdopathic Hotel lie with Dr Peter Gordon Stewart, a surgeon in Dunblane, who in 1839 published a treatise on the properties of the town's mineral springs, "which like the Philosopher's Stone had been represented?as capable of curing all diseases?and even of wooing the mind to sanity when the wild delirium comes and weeping friends are strangers." The Dunblane Hyrdopathic Company, founders of the hotel, rented the mineral wells and for some years water was brought up to the hotel for the guests. The hotel opened in September 1878 based up a joint stock company made up of wealthy traders and business men principally from Dunblane, Stirling and Edinburgh. However, the venture was not a success and the hotel went into receivership in 1884 and was bought by the Cockburn Hotel, Edinburgh for 16,000 (original cost of 60,000). The hotel has continued in business ever since, although during the First World War it was requisitioned for use as a hospital for neurological treatment. Today the hotel is part of the Hilton hotel group.

References

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