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Summary

Description

William Railton, 1879 -1880, in the style of Alexander Thomson. 3-storey, 13-bay classical rectangular-plan commercial building with Greek Revival details; 6-bay return to Bank Place. Polished red Ballochmyle sandstone ashlar with channelled plinth and moulded band courses between floors; architraved pedimented windows to 1st floor.

W (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: 2 modern shop fronts and door to first 5-bays; additional modern shop to bays 6 & 7. Original ground floor elevations at bays 8 - 13 (Nos. 80 - 84): pilastered door with rectangular fanlight above, flanked by pilastered windows with acanthus capitals, further altered door to right with adjacent window. To bays 11 -13: bipartite pilaster mullioned window with semi-pilastered door to right, altered plain window to right. To 1st floor: 13 regularly placed bays with broad cill bands with anthemion details set against architraves, block pediments with incised details set against architraves, block pediments with incised decoration and terminal anthemions; circa 1984 ROYAL LIVER ASSURANCE OFFICE lettered sign above bays 10 -13. To 2nd floor: pilastered windows with slightly recessed anthemion panels between windows. Eaves course and cornice.

N ELEVATION: adjoining 64 - 70 John Finnie Street (listed separately).

E (REAR) ELEVATION: not seen, 2001 - concealed behind Bank Street and Bank Place buildings.

S (BANK PLACE) ELEVATION: essentially 3-storey, 3-bay with 3rd bay missing to 2nd floor. To ground floor: paired former doors to centre, now recessed windows; to right, tripartite window with smaller high window to extreme right; to left, paired rectangular windows. To 1st floor, 3 pairs of regularly placed rectangular windows, right window of 1st pair blind. To 2nd floor, pair of regularly placed rectangular windows to 1st and 2nd bay, right window of 1st pair blind, elevation not continued to 3rd bay. Eaves course and cornice.

Originally 4-pane timber sash and case windows to upper storeys, now some replaced by timber casement, mock 4-pane sash and case windows; replacement, 2-pane PVCu windows to 1st floor of Bank Place elevation. Mostly replacement plate glass windows to ground floor shop elevations. Shallow piended grey slate roof to John Finnie Street, metal ridging, flashing and valleys; slight platformed appearance to differing storey Bank Place elevation. Painted cast-iron rainwater goods, gutters concealed behind cornice, down pipes left into band courses. 3 tall coursed red sandstone gablehead and roofline stacks: projecting neck copes, originally each with 8 squared cans, some now missing or replaced. Shaped, coursed red ashlar, wallhead stack between bays 3 & 4 of John Finnie Street elevation, sloped base with projecting band and neck cope, replacement cans. Much lowered, central wallhead stack to Bank Place, 3 replacement ventilation cans to centre; further partially concealed corner stack to left, can still in place.

INTERIOR: ground floor corner bays now modernised Alliance and Leicester offices; ground floor left hand bays altered to form a solicitor's practise, a take away food outlet and a shop. Upper storeys: remaining in residential use to first 5-bays; next 8-bays providing offices for the Royal Liver Assurance Office

Statement of Special Interest

Part of the John Finnie Street A-Group. John Finnie Street is nearly ? mile long and was built around 1864. It provided a grand thoroughfare for the town with the focal point to the north being the railway station. Business and commerce spread to this street and rows of high quality, 3-storey, red sandstone buildings were constructed. The ground floors were given over to retail, offices and accommodation were above. The street dominated the lower, narrower streets in Kilmarnock that were filled with traditional buildings. The street's architect was William Railton, who went on to design the Kilmarnock Infirmary (now demolished) and the surveyor was Robert Blackwood. Not long after the street was built, Archibald Adamson noted the number of handsome buildings. This is a quite early commercial building by William Railton who also laid out the street. He was the architect of the now demolished Kilmarnock Infirmary. It is noted that the building was at one time the post office, replaced when the new building by Oldrieve was complete. Matthew Muir, a local builder and sculptor (decorative stone mason), also located in Bank Place (from 1887) carried out these works. The building has since been in primarily commercial use, although 2 tenement flats are still in use to the left of the building

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