Signal Station House, Battery Road, North Queensferry

Signal Station House, Battery Road, North Queensferry

Built between 1882 and 1883, this is a linear range of six single-storey cottages and a studio flat arranged in a cruciform plan around an advanced central cottage and rear outbuilding. The building is rendered with a painted base course, stone cills, and features segmental-arched openings interspersed with square-headed blind shallow panels throughout. A raised concrete pavement surrounds the entire building.

The principal south elevation is nearly symmetrical, with an advanced piended three-bay centre section containing a central door flanked by blind recessed panels and paired windows. To the west, a linear range contains three three-bay cottages with a 1-1-2 window arrangement, and to the east, two three-bay cottages with a 2-1-1 window arrangement, plus one single-bay cottage to the far right. The east elevation is symmetrical with a central door flanked by narrow vertical recessed panels and windows. The west elevation is also symmetrical with windows to the outer bays.

The north elevation is nearly symmetrical, bifurcated by a linking outbuilding extending from the centre. To the east of this outbuilding is a linear range of two three-bay cottages with central doors flanked by single and paired windows, and one single-bay cottage to the far left with a window. An advanced central former wash house links the cottage range to the outbuilding. The outbuilding consists of storage sheds and former outside toilets, with an eight-bay east elevation containing a small blocked window, paired windows, open archways, timber boarded doors, and small lights. The north elevation has two small windows to right and left of centre, and the west elevation features a similar arrangement with timber boarded doors, open archways, and further units. To the west of the outbuilding, a further linear range of three three-bay cottages contains central doors flanked by windows and paired windows, with a window to the re-entrant angle.

Windows are predominantly eight-paned timber sash and case windows with horns; metal windows are fitted to the far west cottage, and some plastic top-hung windows are present on the rear elevation. Doors to the cottages are timber panelled; doors to utility rooms are timber boarded. The roof is piended with grey slates and moulded stacks to the wallheads and ridges, some with octagonal clay cans. The interior has not been inspected.

A single-storey gatelodge with rectangular plan stands as a sentinel lodge. It is rendered with a wide base course, stone cills, and round-arched windows which are now blocked. A central door faces east, with two windows to the south and one to the west. A truncated central stack and flue are raised out from the north wall, and the roof is flat.

Boundary walls of stone-coped brick with square-plan end-piers surround the south, east and west of the site. Some cast-iron railings are present on the wall leading to the gate lodge, and a low iron gate provides access to the lower shore level.

This property was constructed following the Forth Bridge Railway Act of 1873, which granted the Company the right to acquire the old Coast Guard Station to make way for the new Forth Bridge. However, the Company was obliged to construct suitable new Coast Guard buildings to the satisfaction of the Admiralty. The site remained occupied by the Bridge Company under the terms of the Act from 1873 until 1911, when it was finally disponed to the Admiralty. Between 1882 and 1883, the six cottages were built as a Coast Guard Station, comprising an officer's house, five cottages, and a Watch House (also known as High Battery, formerly located to the east of the cottages). In 1899 the Royal Navy took over an area of the site and established a gun battery, which operated during the First World War. The signal station tower was erected around 1917, at which point the Coast Guard Station was abandoned. Between the Wars, the cottages were occupied by Forth River Pilots. No gun emplacements existed on the site during the Second World War. The external WCs are no longer in use and now serve as stores.