Description

James B Dunn, 1930-32; war memorial J A Carfrae, circa 1920. Large 2-storey H-plan severe classical school with central hall. Pink-grey Doddington sandstone and cream harl, ashlar front, rear and sides with dressings of sandstone and reconstituted stone. Base as plinth; channelled quoins to front; bays divided by giant pilasters with

moulded capitals; single windows to each bay and each floor.

NW (COLINTON ROAD) ELEVATION: 39-bay; slightly advanced 3-bay entrance portal at centre with 15-bay ranges and 3-bay advanced pavilions flanking. Entrance portal with fretted guilloche dividing floors, blank frieze and dentilled pediment; channelled ground floor; round-arched doorway with deep cavetto reveals, 2-leaf panelled door and semi-circular astragalled fanlight in central bay, doorway flanked by short balustrade and decorative wrought-iron lamp standards; central 1st floor window architraved; large galleon weathervane finial to pediment. Ranges with flat panelled aprons to windows; tall parapet. Pavilions with rusticated quoins, parapet bearing tablet and urn finials.

SE (REAR ELEVATION): 53-bay; rubble base course; bays divided by shallow pilasters; plain tall parapet; 3 central bays slightly advanced, channelled at gound floor, divided by pilasters with moulded capitals carrying blank frieze, cornice and parapet bearing tablet, entrance door to centre bay. 2 secondary doors 5 bays to left and right of centre set in moulded ashlar panels. 3 end bays to each side slightly advanced with parapet bearing plain tablet.

SW AND NE COURTYARD ELEVATIONS: 6-bay central hall with square flat-roof twin clock towers to SE; 2-storey projecting side corridors. Giant strip pilasters and buttresses breaking eaves as stylised square dies; ground floor with alternating round-arched doors and windows with flush red brick hoodmoulds, rectangular windows at 1st floor with red brick lintels; segmental-arched clerestory windows lighting hall with red brick voussoirs; platform roof with 3 large central skylights. Rear elevation of front block with advanced end pavilions with alternating ashlar and rendered bays, central ashlar bay to rear in SW courtyard, channelled at ground floor with large carved armorial panel over keystoned doorway; modern addition to remaining bays. Rear elevation of rear block with single windows and band courses of reconstituted stone; diagonal entrance block in re-entrant angle with hall, stepped doorway to centre with 4 single windows flanking, 1st floor modern addition. Mostly fixed multi-pane metal windows with hopper panels, multi-pane timber sash and case windows to main entrance bays. Green slate roof to rear blocks and hall.

INTERIOR: entrance hall with reeded green marble columns with neck bands of gold mosaic, and green and white marble patterns to floor, walls and staircase echoing compartmentalised ceiling with skylight; heralded marble panel dated 1723. Central hall with large architraved proscenium to stage, panelled apron to stage, fluted frieze at springing of deep coomb ceiling, Diocletian clerestory windows with embrasures swept into coomb. Large skylights with border glazing; rectangular compartmentalised ceilings with carved beams throughout. Boarded dadoes. Library refurbished 1950 with good Fifties detailing to tall timber dado of thin veneer, decorated with inscriptions and incised motifs, basket-arched doorpieces, one with clock.

LODGE, BOUNDARY WALLS AND GATEPIERS: James B Dunn, 1903-32. Single storey and attic lodge with piend roof, rendered with band course of pink-grey sandstone above ground floor. 3-bay front elevation with central ashlar bay with keystoned stepped door surround, single windows at ground floor; 1st floor windows breaking eaves. Tall rubble wall with semi-circular coping, curved at gate with rake-jointed rubble, 3 square ashlar gatepiers with raised panesl and anthemion carvine to each face, cast-iron gates with anthemion motifs.

WAR MEMORIAL: J A Carfrae, 1920 (originally memorial for WWI, moved to new school and adopted to servie sw WWII memorial as well). Ashlar base with portal of square ashlar piers and broken pediment with armorial motif (a tree) and motto apse behind with inscribed dome of gold mosaic and copper roof carried on fluted columns to rear; ornamental iron gates with anthemion and key pattern motifs.

RIFLE RANGE: J B Dunn, 1930-32. Former junior play shed. Single storey with piend-roofed end pavilions, rendered with pink-grey sandstone dressings; end pavilions with single windows; main elevation with blind arcading to centre range with sandstone piers and red brick arches.

Statement of Interest

The armorial panels in the entrance hall and in the SW courtyard as well as the galleon weathervane were transferred from the first George Watson's Hospital at Lauriston Place, built in 1740 by William Adam. The stripped classicism employed by Dunn for the college was popular in the 1020s and 30s (or even later) for municipal and school architecture, as shown, for example, at Wishaw High School, Wishaw, 1928, by A J Stewart, the Lanarkshire County Architect.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• George Watson's College at Wikipedia
• George Watson's College official website
• Wikidata Q3760670

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.

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