The Scrymgeour Building, University Of Dundee, Dundee

The Scrymgeour Building, University of Dundee

A former Dundee College of Education designed by Thomas Martin Cappon and constructed between 1911 and 1920. The main building is three storeys with a raised basement, arranged symmetrically in an E-plan with a seventeen-bay front elevation. It is built in plain Beaux-Arts style. To the north stands a smaller Demonstration School, which is simpler in detail and rises to two, four storeys and an attic. The two buildings are connected by a covered bridge at first and second floor level.

The main building employs red ashlar stone to its front elevation, while the sides are constructed in bull-faced snecked red rubble with red ashlar dressings. The roof is of piended slate. The detailing includes an ashlar base course, a band course at ground floor level, a corbelled cornice at the second floor, and a prominent corniced parapet stepped at the centre bay and pavilions. The lower floors feature channelling, with channelled quoin strips that incorporate festooned rectangular detail at their capitals. Windows vary in type and treatment—single, bi-partite, and tripartite openings, some with architraves or cornices, others round-headed—and are fitted with multi-pane sash and case frames or top-hopper and casement frames.

The front elevation presents three bays slightly advanced at the centre. Here stands a U-plan perron staircase with coped ashlar flanks and channelled piers, incorporating a basement door. The principal doorpiece is moulded and banded with Doric columns, surmounted by a segmental pediment adorned with coats of arms and acanthus leaves. To the left and right of the doorpiece are windows at ground and first floor levels, with a bipartite recessed window above and a Diocletian window at the second floor flanked by single windows with side panels and cornice. Six bays extend to either side of the centre, each containing six round-headed windows at basement level, six corniced windows at ground floor, and windows at first and second floors. Advanced pavilions occupy the outer left and right positions, each with three round-headed basement windows, three windows to ground and first floors, a Diocletian window to the second floor, and further windows to each floor at the inner returns.

The right return elevation comprises eight bays, with three round-headed windows and a door at basement level to the left, four basement windows to the right, and eight windows distributed across the upper floors. A notably small window breaks the pattern at the fourth bay from the right on the third floor.

The left return elevation broadly mirrors the right return with variations in fenestration and includes a segmental-arched bridge to the north building between ground and first floors, fitted with two bipartite windows and a corniced parapet. Later additions have been made to the rear.

The rear elevation features a central advanced wing containing ground floor and principal floor accommodation, with six round-headed windows to its return elevations. Advanced pavilions project to the far left and right, with various later additions distributed across this elevation.

The interior of the main building includes a large single-storey entrance hall of striking character, with Doric columns, a corbelled cornice, and a beamed ceiling. Beneath this, the basement entrance hall is pilastered. A large assembly hall features a waggon roof and round-headed windows with leaded lights and stained glass panels alternating with giant pilasters. A panelled gallery occupies the west end.

The north building's front elevation is composed of five bays recessed at the centre, featuring three large round-headed windows at ground floor and three cross-windows at first floor. Columned porches with corniced parapets occupy the re-entrant angles at left and right, with two stair windows above. Five-storey, two-bay pavilions are advanced to the outer left and right, displaying paired windows to the lower floors and a keystoned round-headed window to the fourth floor that breaks through the cornice.

The left return elevation of the north building displays paired windows at four floor levels to the right, with a door and various windows set within a slightly recessed bay to the left. The right return is similar in arrangement but includes the bridge to the main building.

The boundary of the site is defined by low ashlar walls topped with metal railings, interspersed with ashlar piers. Two metal lampstandards stand at the main entrance staircase.