The Carnegie Centre, 46 Pilmuir Street, Dunfermline

The Carnegie Centre, 46 Pilmuir Street, Dunfermline

A large single-storey building with attic and basement, designed by Hippolyte J Blanc between 1901 and 1905. The structure underwent alterations and additions from 1979 to 1984 by James Parr and Partners, with further redevelopment between 2007 and 2012 by Fife Council Architectural Services. This 19-bay Scots Renaissance public building features a prominent 2-storey gabled entrancepiece with flanking octagonal towers.

The principal western elevation is constructed of sandstone ashlar with a base course, band courses, eaves cornice and coped parapet. It comprises a main 15-bay section with a slightly projecting 5-bay entrancepiece at the centre. Additional band courses sit at first floor cill level and at the base of the attic, with a deep dentilled cornice running along the eaves. The segmental-headed entrance is set within a slightly recessed segmental-headed panel rising to first floor, flanked by pilasters that extend to the gable. The moulded arch is decorated with floral motifs including fleur-de-lys, with wrought-iron gates opening onto the entrance lobby and a replacement door set back in a part-glazed screen with fanlight. Flanking mullioned and transomed quadripartites serve the ground and first floors, with one featuring a shaped pediment above. The entrancepiece is topped by a Dutch-like gable with a corniced lower stage, flanking finials at the head of outer pilasters, and a pair of central pilasters rising to an open-topped semicircular pediment at the raised apex. A pedimented niche occupies the upper stage of the gable.

Octagonal towers with finialled pepperpot roofs flank the gabled section. Each tower bears a decorative bronze panel by Richard Goulden set in an aediculed niche to the outer face at ground floor level—the left panel inscribed 'IN INFANTIA PUDOR' and the right 'IN VIRO VIRTUS'. Wrought-iron lamp brackets appear on adjacent faces towards the entrance. Narrow windows light alternate exposed faces at first floor, and narrow windows serve each exposed face at attic level, divided by bracketed pilasters at each angle.

Five flanking bays set back slightly are divided at upper level by bracketed pilasters with ball finials above the parapet. Mullioned quadripartites recessed slightly below roll-moulded outer lintels serve the ground floor of each bay, except for a canted bay to the outer right featuring a central mullioned and transomed quadripartite with flanking transomed bipartites, each divided by bracketed and finialled pilasters at upper level. The whole is surmounted by a finialled deep polygonal piended roof rising to the attic. Boxed dormers with slightly swept roofs serve the attic of each flanking bay, except the outer right. Steps down to a basement entrance appear in the inner bay to the left side.

A 4-bay section set back to the outer left includes a tower with a finialled pavilion roof over the former Turkish bath, returning to the north elevation. Corner pilasters with ball finials mark the angles of the tower, with a dentilled eaves cornice above a frieze. A mullioned quadripartite serves the upper level with flanking bracketed pilasters rising to ball finials above the parapet. To the right lie three bays divided by bracketed panels at parapet level, with a mullioned sexpartite to the basement.

The southern elevation features a wraparound façade continuing across a gable end bay set forward to the outer left. The central part of this bay projects forward at the base of the gablehead stack with a pair of small windows to the ground floor. An irregularly fenestrated section is set back to the right. An entrance with a 2-light rectangular fanlight appears to the far left, with a window to the right and a breaking-eaves dormer with semicircular pediment—abutting a battered stack—centred above. A 3-bay piended-roofed section projects slightly to the right, flanked by mullioned and transomed windows to either side of the ground floor (a sexpartite to the left, a pair of quadripartites to the right). Flanking outer breaking-eaves dormers with semicircular pediments rise above. A pair of windows serves the central bay at ground and attic floors; the upper pair shares a breaking-eaves gable and abuts a wallhead stack. Steps down to basement openings sit behind cast-iron railings with simple Art Nouveau finials to newels.

The eastern elevation is largely occupied by later brick extensions, with a harled gable end and white glazed brick sections set back to the outer left. The northern elevation is similarly dominated by a later brick extension, though the original ashlar tower with finialled pavilion roof over the Turkish baths (part of the wraparound façade) is set back to the outer right, featuring corner pilasters with ball finials at the angles, a dentilled eaves cornice above a frieze, and a mullioned quadripartite to the upper level with flanking bracketed pilasters rising to ball finials above the parapet.

The building is roofed with slates and red ridge tiles (the south-east section is piended). Flanking bracketed gablehead stacks with cornices and friezes serve the 2-storey and attic entrancepiece section, with a corniced gablehead stack and frieze to the wraparound façade to the south. A pair of corniced wallhead stacks (one slightly battered) sits to the south, and one to the east at the junction with the white glazed brick section. Round cans are present throughout.

The original fenestration comprises mainly multi-pane timber sash and case windows; casements serve the dormers and mullioned quadripartites.

The interior has been extensively remodelled while retaining many original features. The hallway and gallery feature timber panelling, pilasters and supporting columns, with a balustraded elongated oval well. A reception room to the south contains timber panelled walls and a segmental-arched recess with chimneypiece to the north wall. Elements of the former Turkish bath area survive, decorated in Moorish style with Moorish arches and fine glazed and embossed tiling. A galleried swimming pool area is fitted with decorative cast-iron columns and balustrade and an open steel and cast-iron roof truss, with a large Diocletian window to the internal gable wall.