Description

Circa 1815 with later alterations and additions. 2-storey, 3-bay tenement in terrace with shop at ground. Rubble with red sandstone tails to 1st floor windows; harled rear elevation. Raised painted quoins; base course; band course between ground and 1st floor; eaves course, cornice and blocking course.

SE ELEVATION: modern 2-leaf glazed door to centre with plate glass rectangular fanlight above; glazed 19th century shop windows flanking, with pilasters, corbelled at fascia. Window to each bay at 1st floor. Panelled tablet to centre and to outer extremes of blocking course. Pend-entrance to outer right with ashlar square, corniced column supporting to right.

NW ELEVATION: gabled with window at 1st floor in bay to left; opening at ground to outer left.

6-pane timber sash and case windows. Slate roof with piended canted dormers to SE elevation, outer bays. Stack to left.

INTERIOR: not seen, 1995.

Statement of Interest

The building appears on Wood?s map as a Masonic lodge. The tablets to the blocking course may have been added later, as they do not align exactly to centre, along with the slightly raised quoins. The photograph which was part of the Rev John Lawson collection of circa 1865, shows the building with the panelled tablets but without dormers, and the shopfront as now. The pend support is a part of the adjacent building, the Bank of Scotland which is sited to NE (see separate listing). Holton has made the surprising suggestion that the site was utilised to house the first cafe in Selkirk, for the French Napoleonic prisoners-of-war who were billeted in the town. The foundation stone of the present building was laid in circa 1815 (2 years after the war finished) by Sir Walter Scott for the Masonic Lodge. When this moved to Back Row in 1897, the building was then utilised as a dressmaker?s shop, and since then has been a cafe, under various ownership.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77771195

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

• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)