Description

Michael Brodie, 1885-6. T-plan, gabled, Romanesque church hall with pinnacled angle buttresses, round-arched windows and incorporating former caretaker's flat to S. Roughly coursed whinstone with polished yellow sandstone ashlar dressings. Base course to principal (N) elevation and front parts of side elevations; corbelled eaves course to front parts of side elevations. Predominantly round-arched openings with chamfered window margins; rectangular windows to regularly fenestrated rear (S) and to irregularly fenestrated gable at right of W elevation.

FURTHER DESCRIPTION: Principal (N) elevation with central 2-leaf timber-boarded door in round-arched doorway within slightly advanced, coped surround flanked by gabletted buttresses; single window to each side; tripartite stone-mullioned triple-arched window above; oculus in gable. E elevation with evenly spaced windows and buttresses to front section; tripartite stone-mullioned window flanked by single windows to advanced gable to rear, with oculus in gable. (S) elevation with 4 windows at ground floor and 2 at 1st floor; stone steps to modern door with 2-pane fanlight to outer left. W elevation similar to E elevation; 3 windows at ground floor and 1 at 1st floor to advanced rear gable with curved skewputts; plain railing surrounding stone steps to cellar. Single-storey, flat-roofed, 20th-century entrance extension at re-entrant angle of W gable, with timber-boarded door.

Predominantly geometric-patterned leaded glass to round-arched windows; 4-pane glazing pattern in timber sash and case windows elsewhere. Ashlar-coped skews. Sandstone ashlar gablehead stack with circular buff clay cans to rear (S). Welsh slate roof with metal ridges. Mostly cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: N gallery with turned timber balustrade to full-height main hall; timber dado panelling; cornices; 2 decorative cast-iron ceiling ventilation grilles. Single-storey ground-floor hall to rear with tripartite mullioned windows to central corridor; part-glazed timber-panelled folding partition; timber dado panelling. Kitchen between halls with timber serving hatch to each. Predominantly 4-panel timber doors with chamfered detailing, some concealed beneath later panelling.

Statement of Interest

A well-proportioned, Romanesque-style, late-19th-century church hall with good detailing, situated in a prominent corner position at the intersection of Buccleuch Street and Buccleuch Place. With the exception of a late-20th-century dormer in the N face of the W gable roof, some small Velux windows to the caretaker's flat, and some damaged glazing, it remains essentially unaltered.

The hall was built to serve the Old Parish Church, which had been designed by the very prominent architect William Burn for the Duke of Buccleuch and built in 1844 on the adjacent site now occupied by Frank Scott Court (the church was formerly listed jointly with the hall, but was closed in 1989 after succumbing to structural problems, and was demolished in 1992). The hall reflects the Romanesque style of the church, which had similar windows, buttresses and other detailing. Its designer, Michael Brodie, was a local architect whose office was in Union Street, Hawick. The design was executed by the builder Andrew R Michie. The flat-roofed extension formed part of the linking block between hall and church.

The hall is now used by St Mary's and Old Parish Church, which stands on an elevated site some distance away to the east. St Mary's was the original parish church of Hawick prior to the construction of the William Burn 'Old Parish Church' building, and re-absorbed the congregation of the latter following its closure. The former caretaker's flat, which occupies the first floor of the rear part of the building, above the smaller hall, is now under separate ownership, and its interior was not seen at resurvey (2007/8). List description revised and category changed from B to C(S) following resurvey (2008).

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q56635194

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

• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)