Documents

There are no additional online documents for this record.

Summary

Description

1878, with earlier-20th-century addition to E corner. 2-storey and attic, 3-bay, roughly L-plan, eclectically detailed villa on raised site, with crowstepped gables, chevron detailing above ground-floor openings, parapet with cast-iron railing and finials above 1st-floor windows, central pavilion-roofed tower with brattishing, and single-storey extension with roof terrace in re-entrant angle at E. Tooled yellow sandstone ashlar to principal elevation; tooled, squared, snecked yellow sandstone elsewhere; lightly droved ashlar dressings throughout. Base course; eaves cornice; moulded lintel cornice, frieze and cornice around both sides of E extension. Quoin strips. Quadripartite windows with colonette mullions to bowed right bay; stop-chamfered window margins elsewhere to principal elevation; raised cills to side and rear elevations.

FURTHER DESCRIPTION: Principal (SE) elevation: 2 stone steps to central, 9-panel timber door with rectangular fanlight in roll-moulded, corniced architrave; single light above at 1st floor; projecting corbelled balcony at 2nd floor; bipartite, stone-mullioned window at attic of tower. 2-storey canted windows to slightly recessed, gabled left bay with oculus at attic. 2-storey bowed windows to gabled right bay with oculus at attic. Single-storey extension to outer right with decorative cast-iron railing enclosing terrace at 1st floor. SE (side) elevation: single-storey extension to left with 2 semicircular stone steps to shouldered, round-arched door with fanlight in rectangular architrave with narrow side lights (see NOTES); blank gable advanced to right. Rear (NW) elevation: irregular fenestration, with tall, round-arched stair window to centre and single-storey, gabled service wing advanced to right (see NOTES). Irregular fenestration to crowstepped, platform-gabled SW (side) elevation.

Predominantly plate glass in timber sash-and-case windows; 4-pane glazing to central 1st-floor front window. Grey slate roof with metal ridge. Corniced ashlar stacks with octagonal buff clay cans. Predominantly plastic rainwater goods with some decorative cast-iron hoppers.

INTERIOR: entrance lobby with geometrically patterned ceramic floor tiles and timber wall panelling. Half-glazed, timber-panelled inner door with narrow side lights and tripartite rectangular fanlight.

Statement of Special Interest

A good, later-19th-century villa with eclectic detailing, situated on an elevated site above West Stewart Place, at the eastern end of Wilton in the north-east of Hawick.

The building's principal elevation successfully combines elements as diverse as Dutch crowstepped gables, a French Renaissance tower and Gothic colonette mullions. The east corner extension is not shown on the 2nd or 3rd Edition Ordnance Survey maps (1897 and 1917 respectively), but had been added by the time of the 1938 revisions to the 3rd Edition Ordnance Survey map. The side door, with its shouldered, round-arched shape and flanking lights, echoes a form common in the architecture of 17th-century East Anglia and repeated in the work of the English architect Richard Norman Shaw in his Arts & Crafts and 'Queen Anne' buildings of the 1870s. The rear service wing, which appears to be original as it is shown on the 2nd Edition Ordnance Survey map, has been significantly altered.

This area of Hawick was formerly known as 'Stewartfield', and this villa was built as 'Viewforth' for hatter George Porteous. Subsequent occupants include I Washington Wallis and John Farrar Blenkhorn. It became a temperance hotel prior to the Second World War, and was latterly a regular hotel until being sold to the current owners in 2007. The interior was not seen at resurvey (2008), however the entrance lobby was visible from the exterior

References

Bibliography

About Listed Buildings

Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.

We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.

Listing is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for buildings of special architectural or historic interest as set out in the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997.

We list buildings which are found to be of special architectural or historic interest using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)

Listed building records provide an indication of the special architectural or historic interest of the listed building which has been identified by its statutory address. The description and additional information provided are supplementary and have no legal weight.

These records are not definitive historical accounts or a complete description of the building(s). If part of a building is not described it does not mean it is not listed. The format of the listed building record has changed over time. Earlier records may be brief and some information will not have been recorded.

The legal part of the listing is the address/name of site which is known as the statutory address. Other than the name or address of a listed building, further details are provided for information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland does not accept any liability for any loss or damage suffered as a consequence of inaccuracies in the information provided. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing. Even if a number or name is missing from a listing address it will still be listed. Listing covers both the exterior and the interior and any object or structure fixed to the building. Listing also applies to buildings or structures not physically attached but which are part of the curtilage (or land) of the listed building as long as they were erected before 1 July 1948.

While Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating listed buildings, the planning authority is responsible for determining what is covered by the listing, including what is listed through curtilage. However, for listed buildings designated or for listings amended from 1 October 2015, legal exclusions to the listing may apply.

If part of a building is not listed, it will say that it is excluded in the statutory address and in the statement of special interest in the listed building record. The statement will use the word 'excluding' and quote the relevant section of the 1997 Act. Some earlier listed building records may use the word 'excluding', but if the Act is not quoted, the record has not been revised to reflect subsequent legislation.

Listed building consent is required for changes to a listed building which affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest. The relevant planning authority is the point of contact for applications for listed building consent.

Find out more about listing and our other designations at www.historicenvironment.scot/advice-and-support. You can contact us on 0131 668 8914 or at designations@hes.scot.