120 High Street, Montrose

120 High Street, Montrose

A three-storey classical hotel building with attic, built in 1892 by J Sim on a corner site. The building has a long rectangular plan with a distinctive corner tower and is constructed in sandstone ashlar to the front elevation, with squared and snecked stone to the side and rear elevations.

The front elevation is divided into ten bays by pilasters and features irregular fenestration punctuated by a corner entrance. Detailing includes a base course, band course and cornice above ground floor, a first floor cill course with band course above, a second floor cill course with cornice above, eaves cornice, parapet and architraved margins throughout.

The east elevation comprises two bays. The bay to the right contains a door at ground level with a painted and enclosed surround; the first and second floors have pilasters with triglyphs and guttae, stone patera above the capitals, and stone mullioned bipartite windows. The bay to the left has a piended dormer above; at ground level is a decorative shopfront with a timber frame incorporating slender columns and plate glass. Single windows occupy the first and second floors.

The corner elevation features a splayed pilastered entrance with a painted fanlight in a decorative frame. Canted tripartite windows appear at first and second floors. Above rises an octagonal tower head with tripartite windows beneath shallow arched heads with keystones, a cornice, and a fishscale banded slate roof topped with ornate iron brattishing and a central flag pole.

The south elevation is the longest facade, comprising seven pilaster-framed bays with varied fenestration. The rightmost bay continues the shopfront from the east elevation at ground level, with blank walls above. The bays to the left feature varied detailing: one contains a modern recessed door at ground level with two first-floor windows and Doric pilasters with triglyphs and cornice; another has centred second-floor windows with pilasters and stone patera above capitals, a stepped gable with a round-arched keystoned window, flanking pilasters, cornice and corniced stack. A public house frontage occupies ground level in one bay, with painted pilasters, fascia, fluting and panelled decoration; a door stands to the left and plate glass to the right; stone-mullioned bipartites appear at first and second floors with a canted dormer above. A narrow painted section continues the public house frontage with deep pilasters, a twin-leaf door and high square fanlight at ground level; first and second floor windows have flanking pilasters and entablature, the latter incorporating the wallhead cornice; a broken pediment feature rises above the parapet with an offset canted dormer to the left. The three leftmost bays are symmetrical with an extra storey above ground; the rightmost contains fluting and panelled decoration continuing at ground level; the two bays to the left feature modern shopfronts with a mezzanine floor and grid-type glazing; seven-light windows occupy the upper storeys (the central window is boarded), with timber frames and panels. The penultimate bay to the left includes a cornice between first and second floors and a windowed gablehead with a keystoned round-arched window, flanking pilasters, cornice and corniced stack, with flanking canted dormers.

The west elevation is a three-bay gable end with No 12 Hume Street adjoining at ground level. Narrow windows appear at first floor level, larger windows at second floor (the central window has a lowered cill). Two band courses sit above, with ashlar crowsteps and a band course at the base of the stack.

The north elevation comprises eight asymmetrical bays. Four bays to the left have single windows at first and second floors with four canted dormers above. The remaining four bays to the right feature a bay with paired windows (the left window transomed), a bay with single windows, and a final bay with a bipartite window at first floor, a single window at second floor, and a canted dormer above. The ground floor was not visible at the time of survey in 1997.

Timber sash and case windows throughout feature plate glass glazing. The roof is laid in grey slate. Stacks include a corniced gablehead stack to the west, a shouldered wallhead stack to the north, and a broad corniced ridge stack to the centre; all retain some surviving original polygonal cans.

The interior upper storeys were not examined at the time of survey in 1997.