Cathedral House, East Buchanan Street, Paisley, Paisley, Renfrewshire

Entry Name: Cathedral House, East Buchanan Street, Paisley

Listing Name: East Buchanan Street, Cathedral House and St Mirin's Old Academy

Listing Date: 22 July 1999

Category: C

Source: Historic Scotland

Source ID: 393519

Historic Scotland Designation Reference: LB46283

Building Class: Cultural

ID on this website: 200393519

Location: Paisley

County: Renfrewshire

Town: Paisley

Electoral Ward: Paisley Northeast and Ralston

Traditional County: Renfrewshire

Tagged with: Architectural structure

Description

James Barr Lamb, 1893, Old Academy; Frederick V Burke, 1905, extension to N; W R Watson, 1912, extension to S. Irregularly terraced group of school and residential properties in plain domestic gothic, 2- and 3-storey, with attic, and part basement. Squared and snecked sandstone with ashlar dressings, 1905 extension in brick to rear, 1912 extension harled to rear; chamfered arrises; stone mullions; eaves course. Relieving arches to work of 1893 and 1905. 1893 and 1905 sections latterly united as Cathedral House, serving as offices and Priest's House.

1893 ACADEMY: principal W elevation to E Buchanan Street. L-plan core of 1893: 5-bay entrance block set back, door to centre with 3-pane fanlight, flanking windows, and windows at 1st floor with 2-light upper sections over stone transom; centre bay breaking eaves in gablehead jettied from 1st floor, with cusped 2-light window with carved quatrefoil to apron and cross finial; 2 basement windows. Advanced gabled wing to right with single and 4-light window at ground, projecting single storey lean-to porch to right, 2 bipartite windows at 1st floor and small windows flanking carved, gable-canopied niche in gablehead; return elevation to left with segmental-arched and transomed tripartite window, plain transomed tripartite at 1st floor above.

1905 EXTENSION: designed en suite with original Academy but taller, plain 2-bay gable to principal W elevation, E Buchanan Street, advanced to form court with L-plan of Academy. Door with narrow window flankingto left of centre, with tall fanlight, flanked by tripartite window to left and bipartite to right. 2 4-light windows to 1st floor and 2 bipartites to 2nd floor; former tripartite in gablehead, now blocked, mullions removed (as in 1999). Similarly detailed in brick to rear with gabled dormer on return to N.

1912 EXTENSION: to right, 5-bay (grouped 1-4): outer left stair bay with flat-roofed porch abutting that of 1893 original, bipartite windows above; 4 bays to right with transomed tripartite windows at ground, plain tripartites at 1st floor, that to centre bay breaking eaves in gabled wallhead dormer with carved roundel in gablehead and cross finial.

Timber horizontal-pane or plate glass sash and case windows. Stone gablehead and mutual gable stacks to 1893 block with battered coping. Grey slate roofs. Modern rooflights. Leaded/zinc battered polygonal stumps of former ridge ventilators to Academy.

INTERIOR: not seen, 1999.

BOUNDARY WALLS AND GATEPIERS: stone coped dwarf wall to W, with later railings. Pair of square section gatepiers with pyramidal caps to entrance of Old Academy.

Statement of Interest

The core of the Acadmey was built to serve as the convent school for the Faithful Companion of Jesus for Canon Chisholm. Lamb (1872-1910) came from a family of local architects. The building incorporates to the rear at ground and basement the wall of the previous building on the site, the Union Lodge. The 1912 extension was commissioned by Archbishop Maguire it was extended to E by Elder & Canon in 1992, and now (1999) serve as the parish halls for the neighbouring St Mirin's Cathedral to E (see separate listing).

External Links

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