Forth House

Forth House is a former townhouse that later became a restaurant, built around 1750 and altered in the early 19th century, 1869, and the 20th century. The building is constructed of red brick, which is now rendered and painted, featuring ashlar dressings and 20th-century concrete tile roofs. It has various brick chimney stacks and is designed in an L-plan.

The main front facing Bewick Street has three storeys and a basement, with seven windows and a first-floor band. The ground floor has been altered and features a round-headed central doorway with 20th-century double doors and a fanlight. On either side of the doorway are four round-headed 20th-century windows set in ashlar surrounds. Above, there are seven plain sash windows, with seven smaller plain sashes above that. The Forth Lane front has five windows, with a single-storey addition from 1869 on the ground floor, which includes a central round-headed doorway with double doors and an overlight, flanked by two round-headed 20th-century windows in ashlar surrounds. This addition is topped with a balustraded parapet. The first floor has five plain sash windows, with five smaller sashes above; the windows to the left of centre are blocked on both floors.

Inside, the building retains its original plan form, although some walls have been partially removed. There is a simple two-flight early 19th-century timber staircase with two turned balusters per tread, a prominent turned newel post topped with a ball finial, and a moulded handrail. A similar but plainer back staircase has boxed-in balusters. The four main rooms on the first floor retain original mid-18th-century features, including panel doors and moulded surrounds, as well as plain plaster ceilings and moulded plaster coving. Two rooms feature a combination of egg and dart moulding and dentilated moulding in the coving, while another room has egg and dart moulded coving, and one has moulded coving.

Forth House is a rare example of a large and significant mid-18th-century townhouse that retains much of its original layout and several important rooms on the first floor. In the 18th century, it was known as Waldie's House, owned by George Waldie, a Quaker banker, though it was likely built for Thomas Doubleday, who paid land tax on the property in 1770.