Description

Circa 1878. 3-storey and attic pair of matching 4-bay tenements with 3 shops (originally 4) at ground floor, forming part of terrace, with shoulder-arched windows and dormers to attic. Painted ashlar to shopfronts; tooled, squared, coursed yellow sandstone with raised, polished ashlar dressings above; roughly squared yellow sandstone with polished ashlar dressings and raised cills to rear. Plain stall risers; plain shopfront fascias, with cornices surviving at Nos 81 and 85; cill course and continuous hoodmoulds at 1st floor; eaves course connecting 2nd-floor lintels and rising to corbelled cornice, broken beneath dormers at No 85 by raised sections with roundels; blocking course at Nos 81-83. Quoin strips. Stop-chamfered margins. Shouldered window architraves at 1st floor; basket-arched margins and corbelled cills at 2nd floor. Timber-panelled front doors; corbelled canopy above tenement door of No 81; vertical and horizontal glazing bars to shopfront at No 81. 4 single-light, flat-roofed wallhead dormers at Nos 81-83, 2 bipartite, flat-roofed wallhead dormers at No 85. Mansard roof.

Fixed plate glass to shopfronts (curved to corner windows of No 81); predominantly 4-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows above. Grey slate roof; ashlar-coped skews; corniced ashlar stacks with circular buff clay cans.

INTERIOR: Stone stairs to closes at lower levels; timber stairs at top storeys; decorative cast-iron balustrades with polished timber handrails throughout. Predominantly 4-panel timber doors to flats.

Statement of Interest

B-Group comprises Nos 77, 79, 81, 83 and 85 High Street and 3 and 4 Oliver Place - see separate list entries.

A pair of well-proportioned, well-detailed, later-19th-century blocks with one fine shopfront with curved glass, situated at the later, north end of Hawick's High Street and making a strong contribution to the streetscape.

These buildings were probably built at the same time as the adjacent No 3 Oliver Place, which was commissioned by James Oliver of Thornwood (1817-1905), who made his fortune in the auctioneering business and was one of the town's wealthiest and most prominent figures at the time. No 3 Oliver Place has far more elaborately carved detail, but many of its essential forms - continuous hoodmoulds, cill courses, eaves courses, corbelled cornice - are shared with Nos 81, 83 and 85 High Street. It seems likely that Nos 81-85 High Street were originally Nos 1 and 2 Oliver Place; their similarity to No 4 also bears out this theory. (No 85 High Street and Nos 1-4 Oliver Place were previously listed together as a single item). List description revised following resurvey (2008).

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q56635150

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

• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability