Hunters Lodge Hotel, Annan Road, Gretna

Hunters Lodge Hotel, built circa 1917, is a hotel designed in the Arts and Crafts tradition. It stands on Annan Road in Gretna, where it makes a significant contribution to the streetscape of this purpose-built town.

The building is constructed of harled brickwork and rises to a single storey with attics. Two wide gables face the roadside, with a door set into the right gable. The main roof sweeps between the gables and overhangs a timber verandah, which was given a glass front in 2012. Two dormers with harled gable-heads rise above this. The windows are characteristically wide with small-paned casements. The roof is covered with graded Cumbrian slates, and the building features prominent stacks.

The design exemplifies Arts and Crafts style through its prominent gables with low swept roofs, deep-set round-arched entrance door, and gabled-headed dormers. Early photographs reveal that the verandah was originally open, with small-pane casement windows unchanged since construction.

The building was originally the staff club of Gretna. The town itself was constructed between 1916 and 1918 to house and provide community facilities for workers at a nearby munitions factory. Concerned about ammunition shortages during the First World War, the government commissioned a large factory to produce Cordite explosives, stretching for 9 miles along the banks of the Solway. Thousands of workers from Britain and Ireland were brought in, requiring temporary timber and permanent brick housing.

The township was designed along Garden City principles, with green spaces surrounding houses, a wide central street containing shops and community facilities, and curving secondary streets. The chief designer, Raymond Unwin, was appointed by the government, with Courtnay M Crickmer serving as resident architect. Beyond housing, the township included churches, a dance hall, a school, and a cinema to serve workers and their families. After the war, the factory was dismantled, leaving few remnants.