Description

James Pearson Alison, 1899. Symmetrical 2-storey and attic 3-bay commercial premises with Renaissance details of polished cream ashlar and glazed curtain wall. SW ELEVATION: ground and 1st floor divided by 4 giant chamfered piers on pedestals; base course at ground, moulded fascia between floors, entablature with deep caveto strapworked frieze (centre bay with PORTHOUSE overlaid on strapwork) and solid parapet above; escutcheons on each pier (reading in turn ESTABLISHED ANNO 1866, STRENU ET PROSPERE and ERECTED ANNO 1900) supported on small scrolled consoles flank shop fascia at ground. Bays filled by plate glass windows in timber frames divided vertically into 3; those at ground altered. Attic with 3 identical gableheads with dentilled eaves and zinc coping, divided by inverted scrolled consoles resting on dies of parapet; each gablehead filled by lunette with roll-moulded architrave and keystone.

8-pane timber glazing with casement windows. Rubble stacks with ashlar facings and coping. Grey slates.

INTERIOR: unseen 1992 but evidently much altered.

Statement of Interest

Built for the Co-operative Society at a cost of $2,105. The glazed areas are exceptionally large for the date. There is a 3-storey warehouse with loading bays to the rear of the building that may once have been a mill; a burn certainly did run through this area of town, and the buildings was a bakery at one point. Grouped with Nos 1-15 Exchange Street (see separate listings).

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Port House at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17567948

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

• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)