Caledonian Hotel, George Street, Oban

A substantial hotel building of the mid 19th century with major additions dating to circa 1885 and 1900. The building is asymmetrical with an irregular plan, rising mostly to three storeys with double attic storeys. It presents nine-bay frontages to both Station Road (Queen's Park Place elevation) and George Street. The architectural style combines Jacobean influences with French chateau character, particularly evident in the roof treatments and Dutch gables. The walls are built in sandstone ashlar with sandstone dressings, originally painted.

Queen's Park Place (West) Elevation

This elevation clearly shows two distinct building periods, divided between bays 4 and 5. Bays 1 to 4 rise to four storeys with attic, featuring string courses at cill levels. Bays 5 to 9 are three storeys with double attic and string course at first floor level.

Bay 1 contains a semi-octagonal tower with Dutch gables crowning each face, displaying bipartite windows to the west face and a tripartite window at ground floor level. It is topped by a pyramidal roof with a gabled dormer facing west. Bay 2 is a circular tower with an architraved, round-arched, columned doorway at ground floor, bipartite windows above on each floor, a cornice at eaves level, and an ogee roof crowned with two round-headed dormers and a weathervane. Bay 3 features a four-storey canted window with a crenellated parapet beneath a Dutch gable, a round-arched window in the gable head, and a three-flue stack at the apex.

Bay 5 comprises a three-storey, four-light canted window with crenellated parapet centred below a Dutch gable, a window in the gable head, and at the corner to the left a corbelled turret with cornice, conical roof and finial. Bays 6 and 7 have bipartite windows with stone Dutch-gabled dormers at eaves level, hoodmoulds at the first and second floors, and a decorative cast-iron glazed canopy over bracketed columns at ground floor level, beneath which is a mosaic floor surrounded by a balustrade. Bay 8 is a six-storey square tower with Dutch gables to each face. Bay 9 displays a canted four-light window at first floor, corbelled out to form a rectangular bay with a Dutch gable rising above the eaves line, a bipartite window at first floor, and a window in the gable head.

A single-storey addition with balustraded parapet runs across bays 8 and 9. The main entrance porch, located in bay 1 at the north end, features Corinthian columns supporting an entablature with dentilled cornice, and pilasters flanking the doorway behind. Bays 2 to 3 have a base course with string courses at cill and lintel levels, bipartite windows in bays 2 and 4 flanking a tripartite window. A tightly curved corner at the south end contains a south-facing window.

George Street (East) Elevation

This elevation also displays two building periods. Bays 1 to 7, dating to circa 1900, rise to three storeys with double attic and partial mezzanine. They feature a base course, cornice at first floor level and at eaves, with a blocking course above in bays 1 to 4. The ground floor contains an irregular arrangement of bipartite windows (with mezzanine above to the left) and arched windows. The first and second floors have architraved and corniced windows with panelled aprons at first floor level. Bipartite windows appear in bays 1, 4 and 7, while bays 2, 3, 5 and 6 have narrow windows, with two closely spaced examples in bay 2.

Bays 8 to 10, dating to the mid 19th century, rise to three storeys with double attic, the lower attic breaking the eaves line with gabled dormers displaying skews. These bays have a base course, string course at first floor level, and cornice at eaves. Modern openings at ground floor include a central doorway with a pair of arched windows to the left, and windows and a doorway to the right. Raised window margins with projecting cills are typical throughout.

South Elevation

The centre portion is flanked by gable ends from the George Street and Queen's Park Place frontages. Single and bipartite windows with margins appear throughout, and apex stacks crown each gable, with an additional three-flue stack to the east gable. A single-storey frontage, continuing from Queen's Park Place across the south elevation, has a balustraded parapet with narrow single and bipartite windows.

North Elevation

A gable end faces George Street with a semi-octagonal tower to the right. The ground floor is largely obscured by single-storey shops (listed separately). A seven-flue, corniced apex stack crowns the gable, with windows to the second and third floors in bays to the centre and left. The west corner of the gable is chamfered with windows. The tower features Dutch gables to each face, a five-flue wallhead stack over the centre face, and windows at the first, second and third floors of the flanking faces.

Roof and Other Details

The roof is covered in grey slate with gabled timber dormers to the west front. The east elevation shows stone box dormers at bays 1 to 4 breaking the blocking course, with timber box dormers at the fourth floor. Bays 5 and 6 have gabled timber slate-hung dormers, while bay 7 features bipartite slate-hung piend-roofed dormers at the third and fourth floors. Bays 8 to 10 have piend-roofed, slate-hung dormers at the fourth floor, canted at the outer bays. The brattishing has been removed from the towers at the north and south ends.

Profiled cast-iron guttering runs along the west and east fronts. The entrance is sheltered by a glazed cast-iron canopy to the left of the main door, decorated with ornamental brackets, and featuring eaves and ridge castings.

All windows throughout the building are plate glass timber sash and case windows.