Waterside Institute, Waterside

The Waterside Institute, built in 1904, is a single-storey, irregularly-planned workmen’s institute designed by John B Wilson of Glasgow. It was erected for the Dalmellington Iron Company and is now in a poor state of repair. Constructed primarily of red engineering brick with harl and pink ashlar detailing, the building features a steeply pitched green slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles. The brick walls extend to approximately one metre below the wallhead, above which are harled wallheads and gables. The walls incorporate a stepped string/lintel course with segmental-headed, brick-voussoired windows, which have multi-pane timber frames, including some larger panes at the bottom. Other features include bracketted eaves, moulded bargeboards, a jettied gablehead, ridge stacks with terracotta cans, and two large, squat ventilators with shallow-domed, deep-eaved roofs and decorative finials.

The west elevation has a wide, depressed arch in the centre, leading to an open porch and tripartite doorpiece. There is a gabled bay to the right with a five-light window, a window to the left, and a lower bay to the far left with a window and a single-shouldered stack rising through the eaves. The south elevation has a gable in the centre, with a later opening at ground floor and a window above. There are two windows to the left and three to the right. The east gable has an outshot in the centre, and windows to the left and right. The north elevation is irregular, with a principal part to the centre, a large gable to the left, a smaller gable to the right with an advanced, lower piended bay, and various windows. A recessed bay to the far left contains three windows. The interior, which was not fully inspected, has a principal hall that has been gutted to serve as a workshop/store. Details relating to its construction were reported in the Ayr Observer and Galloway Chronicle on 6 May 1904.