St Rule Club, 11-12 The Links, St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife

Description

James Gillespie and Scott, 1892-94. 3-storey and attic, 3-bay house in irregular terrace. Ashlar; moulded string and cill courses; eaves cornice with blocking course; stone mullions.

N (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: full-height canted bay to centre with tripartite window to each floor. Recessed corner angle to right: porch with square-section column to ground; bowed bay with bipartite windows above. To left: window to ground with narrow pend to outer left; tripartite window at 1st floor and single window at 2nd; pedimented timber dormer above. Plate glass glazing in timber sash and case windows. Grey slates. Cavetto-coped shouldered ashlar stack with cans; cast-iron downpipe with decorative rainwater hopper. Rear elevation and east gable has squared rubble; the east gable has a recessed bay.

INTERIOR: square stairwell rising full height of building with barley twist cast-iron balusters and curving timber handrail; lantern cupola with internal occulus window at top of stairwell. Timber golf lockers to principal ground floor room. Decorative plasterwork cornices and panelled timber fireplaces to principal reception room at 1st floor.

BOUNDARY WALL AND RAILINGS: low saddleback-coped boundary wall with inset arrowhead railings.

Statement of Interest

Part of a group with Forgan House, The Links and Pilmour Links; Rusacks Hotel; 2-4 Golf Place with 1 Pilmour Links; 12-24 Golf Place; 3, 6, 7, 16-18A and 19 Pilmour Links; 7-8, 12, 13, 15-16, 18 The Links (see separate listings). No 12 The Links is a good example of a late 19th century town house, part of an irregular terrace of large houses opposite the 18th green of the celebrated St Andrews Links Old Course. Set forward slightly from neighbouring No 13 The Links (see separate listing), the bowed windows to the NW re-entrant angle of No 12 are configured to take maximum advantage of views across the Links and the 18th fairway in particular. Local postmaster George Murray commissioned Fife architects, James Gillespie and Scott to design the house. The entrance porch and other details echo Gillespie's 1889 additions to the Royal and Ancient Golf Club House opposite (see separate listing). Tom Morris, the celebrated St Andrews golf club manufacturer, golf professional and Custodian of the Links for 40 years, leased the shop on the ground floor (then known as No 11) between 1897 and 1906. The upper floors of the building were first leased by the St Rule ladies club in 1898, many of whose 186 founder members were wives of Royal and Ancient members. The ground floor was leased to the golfing section of St Rule after 1906, and the club bought the entire premises in 1923 for 3000 pounds. The St Rule Club amalgamated fully with the St Rule Golf Club in 1952. The St Rule Trophy (a tournament established in 1984 and used as a qualifier for numerous international ladies team trophies including the Curtis Cup) is a cast replica of the St Rule's Tower at St Andrew's Cathedral. St Andrews is recognised by international golfers and historians as the cultural home of golf. Early versions of the game were being played in Scotland during the middle ages and it is known to have been played on St Andrews Links continuously from at least the mid 16th century. The right of the people of St Andrews to play golf on The Links was officially recognised in 1552. By 1691, the Regent of St Andrews described the town as "the metropolis of golfing" and a letter of 1712 shows that students could be given dispensation to play. The 'Articles and Laws in Playing Golf' were written in 1744 by the Company of Gentlemen Golfers in Edinburgh. Its principles, as played over 18 holes, still underpin the regulations of the modern game. The popularity of golf in Scotland increased significantly with improved transport and availability of leisure time from the mid 19th century onwards. Early clubs and societies initially met in rooms at an inn or a members¿ house near to their course. Purpose-built clubhouses became more common from the mid-nineteenth century onwards and these were typically enlarged with bar, restaurant and other facilities in stages as the popularity of the game increased further throughout the 19th and 20th century. Scotland has produced many pioneering names in golf including five times Open Championship winner and course architect James Braid (1870-1950), and the aforementioned (Old) Tom Morris (1821-1908). The Scottish Golf Union have indicated there are currently around 550 golf courses in Scotland with a total membership of approximately 236,000. List description updated as part of the sporting buildings thematic study (2012-13). Supplementary information of the listed building record updated in 2019.

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