30-38 John Finnie Street, Kilmarnock

30-38 John Finnie Street, Kilmarnock

A substantial three-storey building with attic and basement, designed by Robert Ingram in 1895. It presents an asymmetrical Free Renaissance composition in coursed bull-faced red sandstone ashlar with polished ashlar dressings to its main elevations. The rear is constructed in coursed red sandstone rubble, with a yellow and white glazed brick extension finished in red ashlar. A distinctive four-storey polygonal corner detail projects prominently, returning to Dunlop Street.

The principal western elevation is multi-windowed across four bays. To the third bay stands a bipartite pilastered door surround with timber doors featuring blocked rectangular fanlights, adjacent to a plate glass cafe. Two retail units occupy bays one and two, separated by a door. A band course fascia runs above all ground-floor frontage. The upper floors feature pilastered, architraved tripartite windows with stone mullions to bays one and three; the second bay contains three pilastered windows. All upper windows have apron panels beneath. The attic stage displays pilastered and pedimented wallhead dormers: a rectangular dormer with tripartite window to the first bay; three triangular pediments with single windows to the second bay; a nepus dormer with triangular pediment and tripartite window to the third bay; and a single window with triangular pediment to the fourth bay.

The southwest corner elevation forms an essentially canted five-sided bay window running through all floors, with a blind fifth bay concealing a stack flue. The ground floor contains four glazed windows with a blind panel to the fifth bay. The three upper floors have pilastered architraved windows to bays one through four, with apron panelling beneath each. A projecting cornice supports a faceted slate roof topped with a slender open cupola and ornate brass finial.

The Dunlop Street elevation comprises three storeys with attic and basement. The basement contains a two-leaf boarded door to the fourth bay and bipartite stone-mullioned windows to the second and third bays, with a single window to the first. Ground, first and second floors each feature a single window to the first bay, with tripartite windows regularly spaced across the remaining three bays. Band courses separate the floors. A slightly projecting cornice supports triangular pedimented wallhead dormers to bays one, two and four, with a wallhead stack featuring paired cans to bay three.

The rear elevation follows a shaped double L-plan. To the left stands the blind gable end of the Dunlop Street elevation. An inner return connects to a white brick extension by means of open verandas with plain wrought-iron railings. A single bay fronts the inner return of the brick extension; a further recessed bay of the main wall projects to the right.

Windows throughout consist of three and seven-pane sash and case units, with two and six coloured panes to the upper sashes and plate glass to the lower. The main building is roofed in grey slate with mansard profile and pedimented stone attic dormers. The rear and rear arms feature piended grey slate roofing. The corner section has a faceted slate roof surmounting the slender cupola. All roofwork includes metal ridging, flashing and valleys. Cast-iron rainwater goods, painted, drain to the Dunlop Street elevation, with gutters partially concealed within the eaves cornice. Wallhead stacks to the Dunlop Street elevation carry paired cans; corner bay stacks are topped with terracotta cans.

The ground floor contains modern shops. The upper floors house tenements.