St Margaret's Works, Foundry Street, Dunfermline

St Margaret's Works, Foundry Street, Dunfermline

A linen damask factory designed by H and D Barclay and dated 1900, with extensions in matching style along Foundry Street in 1913 and a first-floor bridge linking to Pilmuir Works to the south, added by Ashton and Beveridge in 1926.

The complex comprises a two-storey L-plan warehouse, counting house and finishing department aligned along Foundry Street, with a low balustraded tower at the southwest corner. A single-storey shed for lapping, calendering, sewing and embroidery extends to the north. The main warehouse displays free Baroque design, with eyebrow pediments and attached columns to the central openings of tripartite first-floor window groupings along Foundry Street; splayed keystones articulate those to ground floor. The warehouse is constructed of coursed rockfaced sandstone with ashlar dressings to the ground floor; ashlar above. The two-storey west wing and factory shed are of coursed rubble. The first-floor bridge is of reinforced concrete.

Architectural detailing includes a ground-floor cill course to the main two-storey warehouse, a band course above ground-floor windows, and a frieze with moulded cornice at the eaves, which continues across the base of the tower. The tower also has a separate frieze and eaves cornice. Raised long and short surrounds to window jambs on the ground floor of the main warehouse block, stepped splayed keystones to each window or light, and raised quoins at the arrises complete the treatment.

The Foundry Street elevation comprises thirteen bays. The entrance occupies the penultimate bay to the left, with flanking panelled pilasters bearing moulded capitals that support a corniced frieze inscribed "ST MARGARET'S WORKS" in raised letters, and a two-leaf multi-panelled timber door with a window above. Two windows to ground floor occupy each bay to the right. Tripartite window arrangements appear at second-floor level to each bay to the right, except the outer right bay where the bridge adjoins. Each central window is framed by an aedicule comprising a pair of attached Doric columns on bracket bases supporting a corniced frieze surmounted by an eyebrow pediment, with a recessed cill and apron to each opening. Carved roundels with cartouches sit between each tripartite grouping, carved from left to right with a boar's head holding a shuttle (sign of Dunfermline weavers), "H & R" (Hay and Robertson), a lion rampant and "WR", and "RHR" and "JWR" (the initials of three partners of the firm, all Robertsons). The outer left bay is raised as a tower with a bipartite window featuring a column mullion to each floor; that to ground floor incorporates scrolls at the outer upper corners, while that to the first floor has a bracket base and carved capital to the column, with each light recessed slightly and incorporating aprons beneath cills. A lunette above the base of the tower is carved with a cherub holding the date "1900".

The bridge is a shallow-arched corbelled structure in "bridge of sighs" design, comprising five pilastered bays, each with a window.

The west elevation shows a four-bay section of the main warehouse to the right and a closely-grouped three-bay section to the left, with windows to each bay at each floor level; those to ground floor incorporate scrolls at the upper corners. The outer right bay is raised as a tower with a bipartite window featuring a pilastered mullion (and incorporating scrolls at outer upper corners) to ground floor, a bracketed tripartite oriel above, and a lunette at the base of the tower surmounted by mosaic covering to the domed roof and lunette, with thistle carving at the centre. A plain twelve-bay section adjoins, set back to the outer left, with blocked segmental-headed windows to ground floor.

The east elevation of the warehouse features a single-storey modern shopfront to Pilmuir Street. The north elevation of the factory shed comprises six bays, with a square brick chimney (either for a gas engine or laundry) featuring recessed panels and a cornice at the northwest angle.

The windows to the main warehouse are mainly two-pane timber sash and case with some three-pane upper sashes. Grey slate roofs have a platform design on the main warehouse and sawtooth profile (glazed along the north pitches) on the factory shed. Original cast-iron downpipes with moulded hoppers serve the main warehouse block.

The interior features a main entrance opening into a vestibule with an inner doorway set in a glazed screen with flanking Ionic attached columns and an eyebrow pediment. The main entrance hall incorporates a lavish staircase with carved timber balusters and Art Nouveau newels, and an arch-braced cupola. The first-floor partners' offices contain good fireplaces, fixed cabinets and window architraves. Majolica-tiled washrooms are present. Eclectic and Art Nouveau capitals adorn the warehouse columns, with corniced plasterwork above steel beams. Complex double scissor-braced timber roof trusses with longitudinal arch braces occupy the main warehouse. Arched-braced roofs appear in the former colonial department, while the factory shed contains timber trusses and steel beams.