Documents

There are no additional online documents for this record.

Summary

Description

Thomas Russell; dated 1877; extended to same design 1901; rehabilitated 1985. Extensive 3-storey Scots Baronial tenement on corner site (shop at ground No 26); 22- by 6-bay grouped 3-3-3-3-4-3-3 to Russell Street, 2-2-2 to Mill Street; full-height engaged corner tower. Coursed yellow sandstone ashlar; polished sandstone dressings; painted render at ground to Mill Street. Raised base course; architraved string course (stepped to Russell Street); architraved cill course at 2nd floor; moulded eaves. Single and bipartite windows (basket-arched at ground floor) comprising moulded reveals, chamfered cills; corniced openings at 1st floor; corbelled cills at 2nd floor, recessed lintels. Regularly disposed crowstepped gableheads breaking eaves; surmounting thistle and ball-shaped finials; apex stacks. Elaborate neo-Jacobean strapwork with crests and monograms at 1st floor openings to Mill Street and main 1st floor bays to Russell Street; scrolled panels with embossed dates and initials, "TR-MR, 1877" flanking angle.

S (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION RUSSELL STREET: replacement part-glazed timber doors off-set to right of centre Nos 14 and 16, centred at No 18, off-set to left of centre Nos 20, 22, 24 and 26. Flanking single windows; single windows in remaining bays at ground (bipartite in bay to outer left No 18). Symmetrically-arranged windows at 1st and 2nd floors. Full-height corbelled tower to outer left comprising shop entrance at ground, 3-light bowed windows at 1st and 2nd floors, curved crowstepped gable, flanking corbelled stacks.

W (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION MILL STREET: shop at ground (W elevation No 26 Russell Street); regularly-disposed windows above. Replacement doors at ground (Nos 19, 21, 23); plate-glass fanlights; flanking bipartite windows. Regularly-disposed windows at 1st and 2nd floors.

Predominantly 2-pane timber sash and case windows. Grey slate roof; crowstepped skews; cast-iron barley-sugar downpipes; Gothic rainwater heads. Stop-chamfered polished sandstone wallhead stacks comprising flanking crowsteps, architraved copes, octagonal cans. Regularly disposed coped, rendered ridge stacks; various circular cans.

INTERIORS: not seen 1996.

Statement of Special Interest

Architect unknown but may have been the Glasgow-based James Hamilton, who with his son John, resided in Rothesay. The building of Russell Street was supervised by a Thomas Russell, one of the directors of the great Glasgow iron foundry, Walter MacFarlane & Co - hence the elaborate use of cast-iron here. Responsible for many development schemes in Rothesay, Russell was also the town?s Member of Parliament. Despite alterations at ground to Mill Street and replacement doors throughout, Russell Street remains an impressive, highly embellished example of the Scots Baronial style. Note the decorative strapwork, crowstepped gables, thistle and ball-shaped finials and barley-sugar downpipes. The 1863 Ordnance Survey map indicates Russell Street as having been built on the site of the "Old Vennell". Lawson notes how Russell transformed "...one of the meanest thoroughfares at the back of the town .... into a wide street by the demolition of old insanitary houses, and the erection of a large block of handsome, well-appointed dwelling houses." Rehabilitated by the Bute Housing Association.

Rothesay is one of Scotland's premier seaside resorts, developed primarily during the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries, and incorporates an earlier medieval settlement. The town retains a wide range of buildings characteristic of its development as a high status 19th century holiday resort, including a range of fine villas, a Victorian pier and promenade.

The history and development of Rothesay is defined by two major phases. The development of the medieval town, centred on Rothesay Castle, and the later 19th and early 20th century development of the town as a seaside resort. Buildings from this later development, reflect the wealth of the town during its heyday as a tourist destination, and include a range of domestic and commercial architecture of a scale sometimes found in larger burghs. Both the 19th and early 20th century growth of the town, with a particular flourish during the inter-war period, included areas of reclaimed foreshore, particularly along the coast to the east of the town and around the pier and pleasure gardens.

(List description revised as part of Rothesay listing review 2010-11).

References

Bibliography

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.