Description

1904; clock tower by William Syme of Kirkcaldy, 1920. 2-storey with cellar, gabled, public house on corner site with lead domed, 4-stage Baroque corner tower orielled at 1st floor. Red brick and cement-render with contrasting ashlar quoins and surrounds; base course, bracketed and sparsely-mutuled cornice over ground floor and moulded eaves course. Some segmental-headed openings, stone mullions, keystone and corbelling.

CORNER TOWER: to NE. 2-leaf timber door with plate glass fanlight in segmental-headed, keystoned and moulded doorway; tower corbelled to cornice above with canted tripartite window at 1st floor below bracketed course with chamfered angles and cavetto cornice; ashlar 3rd stage, 8-sided with window to NE, remaining faces blind with elongated moulded brackets to chamfered outer angles, cavetto cornice; ashlar 4th stage with pedimented Roman clock faces to N, S and E (triangular pediments to N and S, semicircular to E and W) and blind oculus to W: timber louvres to recessed faces. Segmental moulding and attenuated finial to panelled lead dome.

E ELEVATION: 3-bay. Gabled bay to right (adjoining tower) with 3-part segmental-headed window at ground, bipartite window at 1st floor and gable above breaking eaves with corbelled and semicircular-moulded base to shouldered stack piercing gablehead: further gabled bay to left with bipartite window to both floors and blinded arrow slit in finialled gablehead: centre bay with 3-part segmental-headed window at ground, adjacent door to right, blocked door to left and further door beyond to left.

N ELEVATION: 3-bay. Gabled bay to left (adjoining tower) with 3-part segmental-headed window at ground, bipartite window at 1st floor and blind arrow slit in finialled gablehead breaking eaves; similar gabled bay to right but with bipartite window at ground; centre bay with door to right and adjacent window to left, 3-part segmental-headed windows to centre and left, 1st floor with bipartite window at centre, 2 windows to right and further window to left.

W ELEVATION: flight of stone steps lead to small 1st floor porch with timber door.

S ELEVATION: variety of elements including cellar doors and asymmetrical fenestration.

4-pane and plate glass glazing patterns in timber sash and case windows; small-pane over plate glass glazing in segmental-headed windows (N centre and E right with extractor fans at centre). Grey slates. Cavetto-coped ashlar stacks with some cans and ashlar coped skews with moulded and flat skewputts.

INTERIOR: panelled archway with moulded pilasters, decorative plasterwork and egg and dart cornicing; dog-leg stair with decorative cast-iron balusters, timber handrail and stair window with coloured margin. Cellar with square, stone pillars extending full-height of building, and wall niches (see Notes).

Statement of Interest

'Gothenburgs' (originating in the Temperance Society of Gothenburg, Sweden) were erected as traditional drinking places with much of the profits being donated to worthy causes. The Bowhill Public House Society opened its Gothenburg No 1 in December 1904; No 2, which subsequently became The Railway Tavern, is now closed. A photograph of the 'Board of Management in Office at the Inauguration of PUBLIC CLOCK, 20th Nov, 1920' shows 11 individuals, and the Society remains in the ownership of families of founder members. The interior originally boasted a large horse-shoe bar, and wall niches in the cellar are thought to have been used for blending spirits which took place on the premises.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77770756

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

• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)