Description

J Sim, 1892. 3-storey and attic, classical hotel building on corner site, with corner tower, long rectangular plan. Sandstone ashlar to front, squared and snecked to side and rear, 10 bays divided by pilasters, articulated by irregular fenestration, including corner entrance, base course, band course and cornice above ground, 1st floor cill course, band course above 1st, 2nd floor cill course, cornice above 2nd, eaves cornice, parapet, architraved margins.

E ELEVATION: 2 bays, bay to right with door at ground, painted and enclosed surround, pilasters with triglyphs and guttae at 1st floor, patera above capital at 2nd floor, stone mullioned bipartites at 1st and 2nd floors, piended dormer above bay to left with shopfront at ground, decorative timber frame incorporating slender columns, plate glass, single window at 1st and 2nd floors. Corner elevation, splayed pilastered entrance, painted fanlight in decorative frame, canted tripartite windows at 1st and 2nd floors, octagonal towerhead above, tripartite windows, shallow arched heads with keystones, cornice, fishscale banded slate roof, ornate iron brattishing with flag pole to centre.

S ELEVATION: long facade of 7 pilaster framed bays with varied fenestration and detailing. Bay to right; shopfront from E elevation continued at ground, blank at 1st and 2nd floors. Bay to left, modern recessed door at ground, 2 windows at 1st floor, Doric pilasters, triglyphs and cornice, 2 windows centred at 2nd floor, pilasters, patera above capital, nepus gable with round arch keystoned window, flanking pilasters, cornice and corniced stack. Bay to left; public house frontage at ground, painted, pilasters, fascia, fluting and panelled decoration, door to left, plate glass to right, stone-mullioned bipartites at 1st and 2nd floors, canted dormer above. Bay to left; narrow, painted, part of public house frontage, deep pilasters, twin leaf door, high square fanlight, window at 1st and 2nd floors with flanking pilasters and entablature, that at 2nd floor with cornice incorporated in wallhead cornice, brokem pediment feature above parapet, canted dormer off-set to left. 3 bays to left; symmetrical, extra storey incorporated above ground, bay to right with fluting and panelled decoration continued at ground, 2 bays to left with modern shopfronts, mezzanine floor with grid type glazing, 7 light windows that to centre boarded, timber frame and panels, 2 windows to each bay at 1st and 2nd floors, penultimate bay to left with cornice between 1st and 2nd floors and wndowed gablehead with keystoned round- arched window, flanking pilasters, cornice and corniced stack, flanking canted dormers.

W ELEVATION: 3-bay gable end, No 12 Hume Street adjoining at ground, narrow windows at 1st floor, larger at 2nd floor, that to centre with lowered cill, 2 band courses above, ashlar crowsteps, band course at base of stack.

N ELEVATION: 8 bays, asymmetrical, 4 bays to left with single windows at 1st and 2nd floors, 4 canted dormers above, bay to right with paired windows, left window transomed, bay to right with single windows, final bay to right with bipartite at 1st, single window at 2nd, canted dormer above. (Ground floor not seen 1997).

Timber sash and case windows with plate glass glazing; Grey slate roof; corniced gablehead stack to W, shouldered wallhead stack to N, broad, corniced ridge stack to centre, all stacks with some surviving original polygonal cans.

INTERIOR: upper storeys not seen 1997.

Statement of Interest

Formerly the Central Hotel Buildings.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q56644069

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

• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)