12, 14, 16 Argyll Street, Campbeltown, Campbeltown, Argyll and Bute

Description

Thomas L Watson of Glasgow, 1907. 3-storey and attic 28-bay Glasgow style tenement of L-plan with additional 4-bay elevation facing to SE giving L-plan. Bull-faced squared and snecked sandstone walls with red ashlar dressings and details to NE and SE elevations. Rendered NW and SW elevations with red ashlar lintels and projecting cills. Base course with "shot hole" ventilators, string course at 1st floor, articulated around downpipes and oriels. Cill course at 2nd floor and eaves course.

NE (ARGYLL STREET) ELEVATION: 28-bay elevation grouped 1-4-2-3-2- 3-2-3-2-5-1, symmetrical except for additional bay inserted (23rd bay). Central section of 3 bays (13th to 15th bays) with entrance doors to each bay, narrow windows to centre bay with simply decorated lintels and corniced sills. Doorways all architraved and corniced, centre door with semicircular pediment and flanking narrow windows. Flanking double-bay arrangements (11th, 12th, 16th and 17th bays), 2 windows closely spaced at ground floor to each bay, 2-storey 3-light corbelled and canted oriels at 1st and 2nd floors, 2nd floor centre window framed by engaged columns supporting open pediment over lintel with keystone decoration; gables breaking eaves at each bay, arrowslit in gablehead, niche at apex framed by columns, bracketted and corniced sill, open semicircular pediment above. Flanking 3-bay sections (8th-10th bays and 18th-20th bays) matching centre 3 bays. Flanking double-bay arrangements matching those flanking centre section, except open semicircular pediments at 2nd floor centre windows, and oriels only breaking eaves, with no gables behind. Flanking bays (4th-5th and 23rd-25th bays) similar to centre bays except 4th bay with door to left, architraved with semicircular pediment over, 5th bay with architraved and corniced door at ground floor, narrow window to left. 23rd bay, architraved door with semicircular pediment over at ground floor, narrow windows at floors above, door to right, architraved with semicircular pediment over, narrow window at ground floor of 24th bay with architraved and corniced door to right.

Flanking 2-bay gable ends, 3rd floor (attic) within raised wallheads, gableheads above, apex stacks with decoration matching gables flanking centre section, connected by vertical strip to carved panels below 1st floor string course at N and S ends reading 1907 and BAROCHAN PLACE respectively. 4-storey towers turning corners at end bays to left and right, semi-octagonal form giving 3-light canted bay windows at corners, corbelled out at 1st floor, cornice at eaves.

SE ELEVATION: 4-storey, 4-bay elevation, bipartite windows to 1st and 2nd bays, in all floors, except for architraved and corniced door with slit window to left at ground floor, 2nd bay. Ashlar balcony with solid, corbelled parapet to 3rd floor, large semicircular corniced dormerheads breaking eaves. 3rd bay blank with wallhead stack extending down to corbel decoration at 2nd floor cill course and intersecting with corner tower in bay to right. Blank rendered gable end facing to NW.

NW ELEVATION: single bay to centre with semicircular dormerhead breaking eaves and flanking wallhead stacks matching SE elevation, tower at corner to left.

SW (REAR) ELEVATION: regular fenestration grouped as bipartite windows to each floor flanking stair windows, with 2 widely spaced windows between each group. Stair windows at intermediate levels with 2-flue wallhead stacks above.

Timber sash and case windows (some modern) with plate glass lower sashes, 6-pane upper sashes to most windows, 4-pane to narrow windows. 4-pane timber sash and case to rear, some plate glass and modern glazing. 6-panel entrance doors with 3-pane fanlights above, modern door to SE elevation. 2-panel inner entrance doors with 3-pane fanlights above.

Grey slate roofs to main pitch and gables to NE front. Terracotta ridges, lead/zinc ogee roofs to corner towers with tall finials, lead/zinc roofs to curved dormers at SE front. Cast-iron downpipes with hoppers and profiled gutters to NE and SE elevations.

Multi-flue stacks to mutual gables, rendered and coped to rear, bull-faced to front with ashlar dressing, string course and cornice. Red circular cans to all stacks.

WALL: base course of street elevation extended slightly to N as low wall terminated by plain square gatepier, short length of wrought ironwork railing with Art Nouveau influence.

WASH-HOUSES: single storey roughcast with red sandstone ashlar dressings, of rectangular plan. Bipartite window in end elevations, piended roofs with exposed rafter ends at eaves, terracotta tiles, timber ventilators and 4-flue corniced stacks at ridge. Single storey ranges of coal cellars connecting wash-house to rear elevation of tenement. Cellars flat-roofed 6 vertically-boarded timber doors. Lean-to coal cellar at NW end of garden with vertically-boarded timber doors and grey slate monopitch roof.

RAILINGS: wrought-iron railings to gardens at rear with finialled stanchions and integral clothes-line poles.

INTERIOR: panelled inner entrance doors at ground floor with 9-pane glazed uppers and 3-pane fanlights above. Tiled dados to common stair halls, concrete stairs with cast-iron balusters and timber handrails. 6-panel polished timber doors to flats.

Statement of Interest

On the 23rd May 1906, Alexander Fleming applied for a warrant to erect a "tenement of dwelling-houses". These tenements are of good quality design and construction and an excellent example of the style of architecture brought to the town by the architects visiting from Glasgow. The wash-houses, drying greens, coal cellars, and many original internal and external details make this building a particularly interesting survivor.

External Links

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