Description

Dated 1883, with 1897 and 1910 extension. Large 2-storey on raised basement Z-plan office and warehouse complex with single storey rear. Coursed bull-faced cream sandstone with ashlar dressings to principal elevations; cast stone to rear. Base and cill courses..

1ST (E) BLOCK: L-plan.

ENTRANCE ELEVATION: to E. Symmetrical 3-storey 3-bay; piend-roofed. Stugged ashlar; long and short quoins; cornice; stop-chamfered arrises. Centre bay recessed; tripartite doorpiece with shouldered doorway and consoled pediment; tripartite windows to upper floors. Flanking bays with hoodmoulded tripartite windows at ground, bipartite windows to

upper floors; those at 2nd floor hard under eaves with bracketed

cills and consoled pediments. Single bay returns with tripartite

window at ground, bipartites above.

S ELEVATION: end bay of entrance pavilion to right (E). 7 symmetrical bays to left, with single and bipartite windows. Similar 4- by 5-bay later block at SW corner.

N ELEVATION: end bay of entrance pavilion to left (E). 7 symmetrical bays to right; centre bay slightly advanced and gabled with bipartite windows (round-headed at 1st floor) with oculus in gablehead and apex stack; flanking bays bipartite - single - bipartite. Ground floor outshot in re-entrant angle.

SET BACK W RANGE: 5 symmetrical bays with bipartite windows and archway at centre; to right, gabled bay with hoodmould and panel in gablehead and kneeler skews. 2-bay return (single windows).

N (2ND) RANGE: added 1910. 3-bay link to W range, single - bipartite - single; ashlar octagonal corner tower, corbelled from basement, with cornice courses, ogee roof and finial; single window to each face. 11 symmetrical bays to N; slightly advanced gabled centre bay with tripartite windows; panel in gablehead and kneeler skews. Flanking bays with alternate segmental-head single windows and rectangular bipartite windows. 3-bay return at NW with bipartite windows flanking

tripartite. Plainer but similar rear (W) elevation with row of gabled and piended roofs.

Timber sash and case 6-pane windows. Purple- grey slates.

INTERIOR: encaustic tiled vestibule; timber stair baluster. Timber floors on cast-iron columns with acanthus leaf capitals. Elaborate stencilled decoration now painted over. 4-bay shed for examination, despatch and shipping. Doors, toilets, lift, &c, largely original.

BOUNDARY WALLS: rubble boundary walls with saddleback ashlar coping and railings.

Statement of Interest

Built for Lowe Donald & Co, formed in 1860 by Walter Thornburn; 'in 1881 a great step forward was taken by the firm entering the foreign trade, and ever since there has been continual expansion, until today the firm and the good town of Peebles are known all over the civilised world. The progress of the firm is more like romance than reality, for it seems incredible that one of the largest woollen distributing firms in Great Britain should be located in a small country town in Scotland and should exercise such an influence on the high class woollen trade of the world'. The complex is still used for the same purpose.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17845971

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

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  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
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  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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