56E Annan Road, Gretna

This Grade B listed building at 56E Annan Road, Gretna, is a block of flats designed by Raymond Unwin with C M Crickmer as site architect, completed in 1917. Built in the Edwardian Renaissance style, it forms a symmetrical U-plan arrangement.

The principal north elevation is a long two-storey frontage with pedimented narrow central and wide outer gables featuring blocked cornices. The building is constructed in red brick with some red ashlar dressings. The north-facing facade includes shallow advanced ground floor Venetian windows in the outer bays, pedimented and architraved main door central windows with small-paned sashes, all set within shallow recessed vertical panels. An eaves course and mutule cornice run along the front, with axial chimney stacks and slated roofs completing the composition. The flanking six-bay sides also feature architraved doorways, while single storey ranges adjoin each outer south gable. The westernmost low wing now serves as the Tourist Information Office.

The building is distinguished by its well-detailed design with prominent wide chimney stacks and cornice decoration, regular window spacing, and restrained classical detailing expressed through Venetian window treatments and pedimented door surrounds.

This building was originally constructed as the Police Barracks for Gretna village. During the First World War, the government commissioned a large munitions factory stretching for nine miles along the banks of the Solway to produce Cordite explosives. The government engaged Raymond Unwin as chief designer to plan an entirely new township to house the thousands of workers brought from Britain and Ireland. Built between 1916 and 1918, Gretna was designed along Garden City principles with green spaces, a wide central street containing shops and community facilities, and curving secondary streets. In addition to housing, the township provided churches, a dance hall, a school and a cinema for workers and their families. After the war, the factory was dismantled and few remnants survive.

Raymond Unwin (1863-1940) was a leading figure in early twentieth-century British town planning, advocating high standards of design for social housing and informal planning approaches. He is best known for his planning of Letchworth Garden City and Hampstead Garden Suburb. C M Crickmer (1879-1971), a London-based architect, served as resident architect for Gretna's development and had previously worked with Unwin at both Letchworth and Hampstead.