Description

Built circa 1917. Hotel, in Arts and Crafts tradition. Harled brickwork. Single storey with attics, 2 wide gables to roadside (door in right gable) main roof swept between over timbered verandah (now glass-fronted, 2012); 2 dormers over with harled gable-heads. Wide windows with small-paned casements; stacks; roofed with graded Cumbrian slates.

Statement of Interest

This distinctive Arts and Crafts style hotel sits on a main road in Gretna and adds significantly to the streetscape. The prominent gables with low, swept roofs, the deep-set round-arched entrance door, and the gabled-headed dormers are typical features of the Arts and Crafts style and add to the architectural interest of the building. The building was originally the staff club of the town and early photographs show the open verandah and small pane casement windows.

Built in 1916-18, the town of Gretna was constructed to provide housing and community facilities for the workers of the nearby munitions factory. The government was concerned during the course of the First World War that there was a lack of ammunition for the British troops, and it commissioned a large munitions factory to be built. This stretched for 9 miles along the banks of the Solway and produced Cordite explosives. Thousands of workers were brought in from around Britain and Ireland to work at the factory and temporary timber and more permanent brick housing was erected to accommodate the builders of the factory and its workers. The township was designed along Garden City lines, with green spaces surrounding the houses, with a wide, central street with shops and community facilities and other, curving streets. The chief designer, Raymond Unwin was appointed by the government, with Courtnay M Crickmer acting as the resident architect. As well as housing, the workers and their families required buildings to provide for leisure and the township included several churches, a dance hall, a school and a cinema. After the war, the factory was dismantled and only a few remnants of it remain.

Raymond Unwin (1863-1940) was one of the most important figures in early 20th century British town planning and was the overseeing architect for the development of Gretna and the neighbouring town of Eastriggs. He advocated high standards of design for social housing and informality of planning. He worked predominantly in England and is perhaps best known for his planning of Letchworth Garden City and Hampstead Garden Suburb.

C M Crickmer, (1879-1971) was a London based architect who was the architect in resident for the designing of Gretna township. He also worked with Unwin at Letchworth and Hampstead Garden Suburb.

Notes and References updated, 2012.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17803630

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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