60A And 60C Annan Road, Gretna

A symmetrical two-storey block of flats designed by Raymond Unwin with C M Crickmer as site architect, built in 1917 in the Edwardian Renaissance style. The building forms a U-plan, with a long principal north elevation and single-storey ranges adjoining each outer south gable.

The north front features pedimented narrow central and wide outer gables with blocked cornices. The long elevation displays outer bays with shallow advanced ground-floor Venetian windows, pedimented and architraved main door with central windows of small-paned sashes set in shallow recessed vertical panels. An eaves course and mutule cornice run across the elevation, with axial stacks and slated roofs. The six-bay flanks also have architraved doorways. The building is constructed in red brick with some dressings of red ashlar. The westmost low wing now serves as the Tourist Information Office.

This U-plan building occupies a key junction on Gretna village and is distinguished by prominent wide chimney stacks, cornice decoration, regularly spaced windows, and simple classical detailing in the Venetian windows and pedimented door pieces. Originally constructed as the Police Barracks for Gretna village, it was built between 1916 and 1918 as part of the government's development of Gretna township to house workers for the nearby munitions factory stretching nine miles along the Solway banks, which produced Cordite explosives during the First World War. The township was planned on Garden City principles with green spaces, a wide central street accommodating shops and community facilities, and curving residential streets. Raymond Unwin, one of the most important figures in early twentieth-century British town planning and known for his work on Letchworth Garden City and Hampstead Garden Suburb, was appointed chief designer, with Courtnay M Crickmer, a London-based architect who had previously worked with Unwin, serving as resident architect. Following the war, the factory was dismantled, leaving only scattered remnants.