Description

Circa 1870 with additions and alterations c1900. Asymmetrical 2 storey and attic 5 bay T-plan villa with ornate Italianate and French Empire detailing. Extensions to S and W forming L-plan, square plan tower in re-entrant angle to rear and 2-storey conical roofed circular bay to SE corner. Smooth-rendered masonry. Base course, discontinuous band course and projecting cills. Keystoned round-headed openings to 1st floor.

PRINCIPAL (E) ELEVATION: timber entrance porch with decorative cast-iron brattishing to right of centre. Advanced bay to right with projecting tripartite windows with consoled architrave and corbelling to first storey; Venetian dormer to attic. Canted bay to left of porch with Italianate gable and blind oculus to gablehead. Conical-roofed circular bay to outer left with 6-light windows, battered base course and lead finial. Mansard and pitched-roofed additions to S and W.

TOWER: 4-stage square-plan with chamfered angle to SW corner, corbelled to square. Mock machicolations and gun loops. Tall steep French roof set on modillion eaves cornice; gabled lucarnes with small inset round arched windows and decorative brattishing.

INTERIOR: high quality Victorian interior with ornate white and polychrome plasterwork, carved doors, chimneypieces and other joinery to principal rooms. Glazed oculus set in cupola over stairhall; open well flying stair with wrought iron decorative balusters and carved newel post. Corinthian screen in entrance hall.

Plate glass set in timber sash and case windows. Grey slate with lead flashings. Shouldered and corniced wallhead stacks. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

Statement of Interest

The idiosyncratic mix of Scottish, French and Italian influences in the design of Hunters Quay Hotel makes a striking contribution to the streetscape. The mock defences on the tower are particularly worthy of note. The interior has many ornate features and is notable in particular for the stairhall with cupola, high quality timberwork and plasterwork. The house was originally built around 1870 and is named as Claver House on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey Map. It was substantially extended to the S and W and 'aggrandised' around 1900.

The building is now in commercial use as a hotel (2006).

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77780019

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

• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)