Description

James Pearson Alison, dated 1891. L-plan, gabled, Scots Renaissance former stables and dairy (now converted to housing) on sloping corner site, with conical-roofed tower to entrance at right end of single-storey and attic principal (Elm Grove) elevation and 2 single-storey blocks linked by wall to Orchard Terrace elevation. Roughly squared, tooled yellow sandstone with polished ashlar dressings; some render to courtyard elevation. Chamfered margins to street elevations; raised cills to courtyard elevation; stone-finialled gabled dormers.

FURTHER DESCRIPTION: Irregularly fenestrated principal (Elm Grove) elevation: door to star-finialled, gabled left bay; 2 dormers to central section; bipartite window at ground floor and corniced, single-light upper window with semicircular pediment (see NOTES) to ball-finialled, gabled right bay; 3 stone steps to entrance to outer right, with shouldered arch linking corner pillar to conical-roofed, finialled tower with open pedimented window. W elevation of Elm Grove block: corner steps and pillar to left; gabled bay to right, with single lights to canted, corbelled corners, central plaque (see NOTES), slit window at attic, and gablehead stack. Orchard Terrace elevation: roughly 3-bay left block with dormers flanking central door within corniced and segmented pedimented architrave breaking eaves; shoulder-height wall linking left and right blocks with cope rising to meet eaves at each end; irregular fenestration to right block, with 2 dormers. Irregular fenestration to courtyard elevation.

Non-traditional windows (see NOTES). Grey slate roof with metal ridges. Predominantly ashlar-coped, kneelered skews. Corniced ashlar stacks with circular buff clay cans.

Statement of Interest

Occupies prominent corner site at junction of Elm Grove and Orchard Terrace. A good, late 19th century former co-operative stable and dairy block with Scots Renaissance detailing, designed by James Pearson Alison (1862-1932), Hawick's most prominent architect.

Alison commenced practice in the town in 1888, and remained there until his death in 1932, during which period he was responsible for a large number of buildings of widely varying types and styles, including a considerable proportion of Hawick's listed structures. This is one of his earliest works.

The pediment in the west wall of the Elm Grove block is inscribed: 'THE STABLING OF THE HAWICK CO-OPERATIVE STORE COMPANY LIMITED. ERECTED AD 1891'. The Hawick Co-operative Store Company had been founded in 1838 and had premises throughout the town, including a sizeable department store on the High Street (see separate listing). The beehive moulding on the pediment above the window to the right gable on the Elm Grove elevation signifies the hard-working and mutually supportive ethos of the co-operative. The beehive motif was commonly used by a variety of 19th century co-operative schemes, including the Edinburgh Co-operative Building Company.

These were among the earliest buildings to be constructed in the Wellogate area, which was comprehensively developed from 1888 onwards by the Hawick Working Men's Building & Investment Company; the remainder of Elm Grove was not laid out until 1897. The 2nd Edition Ordnance Survey map (1897) shows the stables to have enclosed three sides of a courtyard at that time; part of the third (south-west) side had been lost by the time of the 3rd Edition Ordnance Survey map (1917), and only two of the ranges now remain.

The buildings were developed by Eildon Housing Association in 2000. The courtyard elevation has undergone significant alterations, but the Elm Grove and Orchard Terrace elevations remain substantially unaltered. The replacement windows give the impression of being plate-glass sash-and-case, probably reflecting the form of their predecessors.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata IDs Q77780976 Q77780980 Q77780986

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

• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)