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Summary

Description

1883 with 1930-31 alterations and additions and c1970s addition. 2-storey, 5-bay, symmetrical square-plan arts and crafts style pavilion with piended roof and advanced double gable to centre bays forming viewing balcony with side screens over entrance canopy. Set back from street. Brick base course to cill level, half-timbering with rendered infill above. 1930s 2-storey section to rear of main pavilion and later single storey 5-bay rendered extension to SE. Bowling green layed to front (SW).

uPVC glazing and doors; piended slate roof with overhanging bracketed eaves; decorative clay ridge tiles and finials; cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: good later 19th century details survive including timber built-in purpose-built ball storage boxes to main ground floor room, timber panelling and simple internal layout. Ladies locker room with ball storage boxes dating from 1930. Simple timber stair leads to timber boarded open plan bar area with exposed timber roof beams.

BOUNDARY WALLS: coursed whin rubble with rounded copes to N and SW; modern block work to SE.

Statement of Special Interest

Galashiels Bowling Club is a well-detailed example of its type with Tudor and Arts and Crafts influences. The two storey design is unusual. Located in a prominent position on Scott Street, its importance is emphasised by being set back from the street with the open green to the front. Despite later additions, the integrity and quality of the building is largely uncompromised. Various interior details such as the ball storage boxes add to the interest. The club lies adjacent to the A-Listed Old Gala House (see separate listing), the open area of the green contributing to the overall setting. The green was once the rose garden to Old Gala House.

Galashiels Bowling Club was established in 1856 and originally sited at Kirk Brae. In 1881 the club purchased the land at Scott Crescent, and the new club house was opened in 1883. A. Herbertsons and Sons are listed as the contactors for building the new green in 1883.

In the early 1900s the club had several eminent players and as a result was a regular venue, hosting touring teams from other areas. Ladies were admitted to the club in the earlier 20th century prompting the 1930-31 alterations, including the new ladies locker room and bathroom. Subsequently the open timber balustrade of the balcony was infilled in order to ensure the dignity of the ladies when spectating the games.

The history of lawn bowls in Scotland is long and distinguished. The earliest reference to the game in Scotland appeared in 1469 when James IV played a variation referred to as 'lang bowlis' at St Andrews in Fife. The first public bowling green in Scotland was laid out in 1669 at Haddington near Edinburgh. In 1864, William Mitchell of Glasgow committed the rules of the modern game to writing in his Manual of Bowl-Playing. Machine manufactured standard bowls were invented by Thomas Taylor Ltd, also of Glasgow, in 1871 and the Scottish Bowling Association was formed in 1892. Scotland has around 900 clubs with an estimated 90,000 players (2013).

List description updated as part of the sporting buildings thematic study (2012-13).

References

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