Description

R H Motion, 1938-39; additions to S. 3-storey and basement; 3-bay; rectangular-plan Modern Movement office building and showroom situated on sloping ground. Geometrical design with flat roofs and interlocked cubic forms; single storey showroom projects to principal (N) elevation. Rendered exterior. Low coped parapets to main roofs.

N (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: symmetrical arrangement. Projecting ground floor with recessed central entrance in glazed surround; replacement 2-leaf glazed steel door; large flanking projecting showroom windows canted inwards to entrance (upper tier of each slightly recessed); inlaid floor in between. Roof canted out to centre (in line with entrance) over fascia board; base course to parapet. Narrow central bay with flanking pilasters, set back to 1st and 2nd floors, raised slightly above main parapet; narrow window to each floor. flanking windows to 1st and 2nd floors set within slightly recessed horizontal bands, which wrap around corners of side (E and W) elevations.

W ELEVATION: blank side wall of ground floor showroom extends to left. Roof of main office block stepped down to right in 2 stages; each with slightly overhanging concrete sun terrace (that to right occupying space of top floor). Recessed horizontal bands continued from principal elevation to left of 1st and 2nd floors; single narrow window to right of lower one. Window to each main floor to right. Paired windows to ground and 1st floors to outer right. Irregular openings to basement (mainly blocked).

S ELEVATION: single window to ground and 1st floors to outer left bay; banded steel railings to sun roof above. Separate build projects to right.

E ELEVATION: blank; otherwise similar to W elevation.

Large fixed pane windows to ground floor showroom; mainly steel casements with horizontal glazing bars elsewhere. Flat roofs, probably concrete. Coped wallhead stacks to side (E and W) elevations.

INTERIOR: modernised ground floor showroom.

Statement of Interest

A strikingly modernist 1930's design situated on a prominent corner site. The offices were complete by 1938, built for the Fife Electric Power Company, but the showroom had not been fitted out, and was therefore taken over during the Second World War to serve as a surface air raid shelter. The showroom was re-fitted in 1948 for the South East Scotland Electricity Board (the former company as nationalised). The building was taken over by Dunfermline District Council Department of Housing in 1976-77. In 1994 the showroom was converted to offices.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17816609

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

• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)