Erskine Beveridge Court, Bothwell Street, Dunfermline, Dunfermline, Fife

Description

Circa 1860; refurbished and converted to flats late 20th century. 3-storey; 17-bay; rectangular-plan; former warehouse and offices for damask factory. Italianate design with symmetrical elevations, low hipped roofs, piano nobile and bracketed eaves cornice to principal (W) elevation and projecting bays to side (N and S) elevations. Coursed stugged sandstone with polished ashlar dressings to principal bays; droved ashlar dressings elsewhere. Base course; band course and frieze above ground floor (adjoining 1st floor cill band; corniced to principal elevation and projecting bays to side elevations); eaves band (bracketed to principal elevation and projecting bays) and moulded eaves cornice. Rusticated quoins at angles. Round-arched openings with rusticated long and short surrounds adjoining base course and fielded panels beneath cills to ground floor to principal elevation and projecting bays to side elevations; architraved openings to 1st and 2nd floors to principal bays; those to 1st floor are corniced; those to 2nd floor segmental-headed.

PRINCIPAL (W) ELEVATION: 5-bay. Central tripartite entrance arrangement with open porch comprising dentilled entablature supported on 2 pairs of columns with volutes; matching pilasters set back to either side of round-arched door and flanking narrow round-arched windows; all architraved within ashlar surround; fielded panels below windows; circular panels above; 2-leaf panelled timber door. Tripartite windows with narrower flanking lights to each of upper floors; that to 1st floor with keystones to openings and bracketed cornice, surmounted by segmental pediment to central light; balustraded balcony to roof of porch; round-arched openings and bracketed cill to that to 2nd floor; ashlar surround panelled over arches incorporating circular motifs over lower side lights; dividing brackets adjoin bracketed eaves cornice. Regular fenestration (window to each floor) to flanking bays; those to 1st floor have keystones; those to 2nd floor have lugged architraves.

S ELEVATION: 17-bay. Projecting paired outer flanking bays and one to centre. Tripartite arrangement to that to centre; narrow flanking lights to window to each floor; including to entrance (with replacement glazed door) at ground floor. Bipartites to each bay to each floor to outer flanking bays; that to ground floor to left of outer right bay converted to entrance. Regular fenestration to 6 bays set back in between; 2 to centre at ground floor occupied by former round-arched entrance with narrow round-arched flanking lights (now converted to windows); window to each bay to each floor elsewhere. Entrances with late 20th century glazed timber doors. Gabled entranceway to former factory and end wall of former engine house attached at right angles to outer right (see E elevation).

N ELEVATION: 18 bay. Projecting paired outer flanking bays; bipartite to each bay to each floor. 18 regularly fenestrated bays set back in between; window to each bay to each floor.

E ELEVATION: pair of inserted windows with concrete architraves to centre to each floor. Triple-pitch roofline of former weaving shed visible above ground floor; coursed rubble stonework below. Single storey gabled entranceway to former factory adjoins to left; large segmental-headed entrance; V-jointed long and short surrounds to outer (W) face; circular panel to gable above dated '1860'; V-jointed pilaster strips at outer arris on this side. End wall of former engine house stepped back to E to left.

2 and 4-pane timber sash and case windows (apart from to E elevation). Piended grey slate roof; finialled raised rooflight to W. Pair of corniced ridge stacks with friezes to W; round cans.

INTERIOR: recessed part-glazed (with bevel-edged glass) timber inner door to main (W) entrance (probably early 20th century). Geometric-tiled lobby beyond with elaborate plaster frieze; tripartite columned screen (pair of columns with foliate capitals and flanking outer pilasters) opens onto hall; main staircase with cast-iron balustrade set back. Ornate staircase with twisted cast-iron balustrade to central entrance to S elevation; late 20th century staircase to E entrance.

ENTRANCE PIERS: pair of square-plan sandstone ashlar gatepiers to W of main entrance; each with base course and round-arched panel to each side; corniced coping surmounted by raised octagonal cap with fielded panel to each side and cornice surmounted by raised head. Low curved wall surmounted by replacement railings adjoins identical pier to N.

Statement of Interest

An imposing Italianate building incorporating a high standard of craftsmanship. It housed the offices (including the design office), warehouses and showrooms for the large damask-weaving factory established here by Erskine Beveridge in the 1840's and early 1850's. The main part of the earlier factory (on the S side of Lyne Burn) was opened in 1851 and later expanded to the N. It was one of the first power-weaving factories in Dunfermline (water for its steam engines being supplied by the burn) and the largest at the time. Erskine Beveridge was something of an enlightened employer and the St Leonard's Works formerly boasted a school (built in 1860) for employees' children (as well as a library for the workers themselves). A large addition (to the E of the office/warehouse block), built in 1883 by Erskine Beveridge's sons, was the only part of the extensive factory still in existence at its closure in 1989. The office/warehouse block had been shut down in 1983 as it had become largely redundant.

External Links

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