Description

1894 - 1895. 3-storey, 4-bay Glasgow-style shop with tenement accommodation and vehicular pend. Coursed red Ballochmyle sandstone ashlar. Polished ashlar dressings to bay windows and doors. String course, sill bands and eaves cornice. Skew gabled with moulded skewputts.

E (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: original shop front to central and right hand bays: attached Corinthian banded shafts flank recessed entrance; retractable wrought-iron guard rails; funnelled entrance leading to bipartite timber door surround, central pilaster holding scrolled foliate pediment, pair of square windows surmounting; shop window to flanks of entrance. Architraved door surround with scrolled pediment to left, rectangular fanlight; high 2-leaf timber panelled door vehicular access to extreme left. Painted timber ovolo fascia for length of building with CABINETMAKERS: GEORGE TANNAHILL & SONS: UPHOLSTERERS in gold. Symmetrical 1st and 2nd floors: semi-corbelled, 2-storey canted bay windows with chamfered arrises to 1st & 4th bay, eaves cornice supporting triangular pediment to central lights of 2nd floor. To 2nd and 3rd bay of 1st floor, window surround with lugged architraves and scrolled pediments. String course. To 2nd and 3rd bays of 2nd floor, window surround with lugged architraves. Eaves cornice.

S ELEVATION: white-washed gable end with TANNAHILL painted red on right diagonal of gable; adjoining much lower and later 2-storey retail and residential building.

W (REAR) ELEVATION: not seen, 2001.

N ELEVATION: gable end adjoining 3-storey Post Office (listed separately).

2-pane timber sash and case windows; plate glass lower panes, stained glass of square quarry with stained glass margins and central pattern to horned upper sashes. Plate glass shop windows flanking 2-pane glazed door in recess; 9-pane fixed timber fanlights; plate glass main windows with glazed margins to sides and top. Piended grey slate roof. Metal ridging, flashing and valleys. Painted cast-iron rainwater goods, gutters concealed within cornice, decorative rectangular hoppers. Stacks missing to gables.

INTERIOR: ground floor still in use as a furniture retailer, many original features in shop: timber shop fittings and skirting boards, plaster cornicing, timber and plaster columns to open-plan shop. Residential accommodation, not seen 2001.

Statement of Interest

Part of the John Finnie Street A-Group. John Finnie Street is nearly ? mile long and was built around 1864. It provided a grand thoroughfare for the town with the focal point to the north being the railway station. Business and commerce spread to this street and rows of high quality, 3-storey or more, red sandstone buildings were constructed. The ground floors were given over to retail, offices and accommodation were above. The street dominated the lower, narrower streets in Kilmarnock that were filled with traditional buildings. The street's architect was William Railton, who went on to design the Kilmarnock Infirmary (now demolished) and the surveyor was Robert Blackwood. Not long after the street was built, Archibald Adamson noted the number of handsome buildings. This building was designed as a shop on the ground floor. The doorway to the left leads to the upper floor accommodation usually used by the proprietor of the shop. Tannahill's has always been listed as a cabinetmaker and upholsterer in the Kilmarnock Street Directories, although now they are branded furniture retailers too. The vehicular arch (ground floor left) was used to access the yard at the rear of the premises where timber and supplies were kept in the workshop. The "showroom" (shop) was extended after the building was built, but kept its original style. This is one of a few surviving buildings still in retail / accommodation use with its original vehicular access; another can be found on Glencairn Street (listed separately). The original shop front and interior fittings are of particular interest.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17791555

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

• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
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  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
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  Old House Care and Repair
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  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
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  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)