Description

James Pearson Alison, 1898, with earlier wing to rear. 3-storey and attic, 2-bay, symmetrical tenement and shops forming part of terrace, with bow windows running through 1st and 2nd floors, pedimented dormers breaking eaves, and earlier 2-storey, L-plan, gabled block with forestair lining courtyard to rear. Polished yellow sandstone ashlar to front; yellow sandstone ashlar with polygonal yellow brick stair tower to rear; painted random rubble to rear 2-storey block. Shopfront cornice; string courses to transoms; 1st-floor cornice to curved bays; deep, full-length, 2nd-floor cornice crowning bow windows; moulded eaves course. Quoin strips. Tripartite, stone-mullioned and transomed windows to bows; bipartite, stone-mullioned dormers. Central inscribed stone plaque (see NOTES) between 1st-floor windows.

Fixed plate glass to shopfronts; plate glass in some timber sash-and-case windows above. Grey slate ridge roof; ashlar-coped skews; coped ashlar end stacks with buff clay cans.

Statement of Interest

An elegant, well-proportioned late-19th-century block with earlier portions to the rear, situated at the centre of Hawick's High Street and making a significant contribution to the streetscape.

James Pearson Alison (1862-1932) was Hawick's most prominent architect. He commenced practice in the town in 1888 and remained there until his death, during which period he was responsible for a large number of buildings of widely varying types and styles, including a considerable proportion of Hawick's listed structures.

The stone plaque reads '1753 / ALL WAS OTHERS / ALL WILL BE OTHERS / REBUILT 1898'. The first date refers to that of a similar plaque that was built into an earlier building on the site, and the wording is intended to remind passers-by of the transitory nature of existence.

The 2-storey block lining the rear courtyard is a remnant of the tenements leading down from the High Street to the river that originally lined many of the closes of the main thoroughfare and were mostly built around the early 19th century.

No 23 was previously listed jointly with Nos 25, 27 and 29, now each listed separately. List description revised following resurvey (2008).

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q56635144

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

• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)