Listed Building

The only legal part of the listing under the Planning (Listing Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 is the address/name of site. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing – see 'About Listed Buildings' below for more information. The further details below the 'Address/Name of Site' are provided for information purposes only.

Address/Name of Site

HUNTER STREET AND WEMYSSFIELD, POST OFFICE INCLUDING PEDESTRIAN GATEWAY, GATEPIER AND BOUNDARY WALLSLB36452

Status: Designated

Documents

There are no additional online documents for this record.

Summary

Category
B
Date Added
08/11/1995
Local Authority
Fife
Planning Authority
Fife
Burgh
Kirkcaldy
NGR
NT 27818 91486
Coordinates
327818, 691486

Description

Probably Robert Matheson, HM Office of Works, 1900-1902. 2-storey with attic and single storey, irregular-plan, Jacobean-Baronial post office with angle tower on prominent corner site. Squared and snecked cream sandstone, and brick to rear; droved and stugged ashlar dressings. Base course, dividing cornice, cill courses and part eaves cornice. Crowstepped gables, voussoirs, semi-circular pediments to 1st floor bipartites; all windows to S, E and W transomed unless stated; chamfered and moulded arrises, stone mullions.

S (PRINCIPAL, HUNTER STREET) ELEVATION: slightly advanced gabled bay to outer right with finialled pedimented doorcase to left, banded pilasters, 'POST OFFICE' on lintel, carved tympanum with royal cipher and finials; deep-set, part-glazed, 2-leaf timber door (behind roller shutter) and semi-circular fanlight; window to right at ground.

2 pedimented bipartite windows to 1st floor and small bipartite with strapwork pediment in gablehead. Bays to centre with bipartite window and flanking windows to each floor, that to centre at 1st floor 6-part and breaking eaves with pediment bearing armorial panels, surmounting crown finials and flanking lion finials; flanking stone balustrade. Polygonal, timber-louvered, finialled air vent to centre of roof ridge. 3-stage engaged round tower to outer left with architraved and pedimented window (converted from door, not transomed) at ground, canopied window at 1st floor, ropework moulding below corbel to 3rd stage with conical roof and weathervane finial.

W (WEMYSSFIELD) ELEVATION: 6 single storey bays to centre, each with window and continuation of dividing cornice forming pedimented hoodmould except slightly advanced bay to outer right with window (not transomed) over letter boxes, cornice and balustrade; 2 small, conical- roofed air vents at roof ridge. Flanking, slightly advanced 2-storey gabled bays, that to right with bipartite window to ground, segmentally pedimented bipartite above and narrow light in gablehead; bay to left lower, with tripartite window (not transomed) and relieving arch at ground and pedimented, bracketed bipartite window above in gablehead.

E ELEVATION: bipartite window to centre at ground and 1st floor, corbelled angle to right, and smaller corbelled and finialled pedimented bipartite window breaking eaves above; blocked doorway to left with blank face above, and pedestrian gateway (see below) abutting to outer left; slightly recessed 3-storey tower-like bay with small parapet to outer right, small extension at ground, window to 1st floor and 2 small windows to 2nd floor, semicircular coping to centre of parapet.

NW ELEVATION: broad, deep-set timber door with relieving arch off- centre right, 2 windows to left, pedimented window breaking eaves to left of centre above, adjacent stack to left and shouldered stack to right.

N ELEVATION: piended rubble bay to outer right with 2 bipartite windows at ground and pedimented window breaking eaves above; asymmetrical brick elevation to left with later timber and perspex additions. Piended brick sorting office with 7 round-headed windows to E, linked to former Unitarian Church at E.

Mainly 6-pane upper over 4-pane lower sashes in timber sash and case windows. Grey slates. Cavetto coped ashlar stacks with terracotta cans; ashlar-coped skews and skewputts. Cast-iron downpipes with decorative rainwater hoppers and grilles.

INTERIOR: timber panelled vestibule; decorative cast-iron newel post and timber handrail to staircase; egg and dart cornicing and some timber panelling to vestibule and former front office (left). Single storey range open-timber ceiling, cast-iron pipework and radiators.

PEDESTRIAN GATEWAY, GATEPIER AND BOUNDARY WALLS: pedestrian gateway with round-headed cope to Hunter Street. Single square-section gatepier with corniced cap to Wemyssfield; cast-iron spurs to angles of building and gatepier. Low, saddleback-coped boundary walls, some with railings.

Statement of Special Interest

Built with stone from Grange Quarry, Burntisland, the Post Office was the first governement building in Scotland to receive a royal cipher 'ER VII'. The sculpture is by Mr Murdoch of Kirkcaldy.

References

Bibliography

Kirkcaldy Civic Society TOWN CENTRE (1994), p37. Gifford FIFE (1992), p283.

About Listed Buildings

Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.

We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.

Listing is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for buildings of special architectural or historic interest as set out in the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997.

We list buildings which are found to be of special architectural or historic interest using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)

Listed building records provide an indication of the special architectural or historic interest of the listed building which has been identified by its statutory address. The description and additional information provided are supplementary and have no legal weight.

These records are not definitive historical accounts or a complete description of the building(s). If part of a building is not described it does not mean it is not listed. The format of the listed building record has changed over time. Earlier records may be brief and some information will not have been recorded.

The legal part of the listing is the address/name of site which is known as the statutory address. Other than the name or address of a listed building, further details are provided for information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland does not accept any liability for any loss or damage suffered as a consequence of inaccuracies in the information provided. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing. Even if a number or name is missing from a listing address it will still be listed. Listing covers both the exterior and the interior and any object or structure fixed to the building. Listing also applies to buildings or structures not physically attached but which are part of the curtilage (or land) of the listed building as long as they were erected before 1 July 1948.

While Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating listed buildings, the planning authority is responsible for determining what is covered by the listing, including what is listed through curtilage. However, for listed buildings designated or for listings amended from 1 October 2015, legal exclusions to the listing may apply.

If part of a building is not listed, it will say that it is excluded in the statutory address and in the statement of special interest in the listed building record. The statement will use the word 'excluding' and quote the relevant section of the 1997 Act. Some earlier listed building records may use the word 'excluding', but if the Act is not quoted, the record has not been revised to reflect subsequent legislation.

Listed building consent is required for changes to a listed building which affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest. The relevant planning authority is the point of contact for applications for listed building consent.

Find out more about listing and our other designations at www.historicenvironment.scot/advice-and-support. You can contact us on 0131 668 8914 or at designations@hes.scot.

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Printed: 29/03/2024 14:41