Description

Alexander Stevens, 1787. 3-storey, attic and basement house adjacent to New Bridge, double-bowed to NE elevation. Painted ashlar. Base course; cill courses to all floors of NE elevation; 1st floor only to NW elevation; bracketed cornice; blocking course to NW elevation; quatre-foil balustrade to NE elevation. Geometrical frieze; decorative brackets to 1st floor window cornices of NW elevation.

NW (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: shopfront at ground to centre and left; pilasters divide openings; timber doors to bay to right and penultimate bay to left; 2-leaf timber door to left, single timber door to right; decorative letterbox fanlights; shop windows to left of each entrance; shopfront fascia above; round-arched pend to outer right. Regular fenestration at 1st and 2nd floors. Tripartite piend-roofed dormer to outer right at attic.

NE (SIDE) ELEVATION: 2 bowed bays. Regular 3 window fenestration to each bow; centre bays blind. Bipartite dormers at attic divided by central stack.

Shop windows at ground, 12- and 18-pane timber sash and case windows to upper floors of NW elevation; 12- and 16-pane timber sash and case windows to NE elevation. Grey slate piended roof; rooflight; broad stone skews; ridge and wallhead corniced stacks; circular cans (no cans to wallhead stacks to NW elevation).

INTERIOR: not seen 1998.

Statement of Interest

Alexander Stevens was the architect of the first New Bridge, replaced by Blyth and Cunningham's 1877-9 bridge (see separate list description). Nos 1-3 Bridge Street was his personal residence. His petition to Ayr Town Council in 1787 reads, "There was presented to the Magistrates and Council a petition addressed to them by Alexander Stevens contractor for building the bridge humbly showing that he had acquired right to a piece of ground for building a house upon lying adjacent to and upon the east side of the New Bridge which house he meant to build in an elegant manner which would tend to ornament the bridge [...]." The Council agreed to his petition subject to the condition that a pend access to the yard of the King's Arms Hotel was provided. The house was given to Stevens' daughter Jean, on her marriage to Lord Mountjoy's agent, James Fyfe in 1794. The deep height of the 2nd floor windows suggests that they had iron balconies (The outer windows of the NW elevations show evidence of bracket holders).

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17122056

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.

Recommended Books

• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)