Elmbank Hostel, 21 Westland Drive, Glasgow

Elmbank Hostel, located at 21 Westland Drive in Glasgow, is a former orphanage built in 1891 by S Henbest Capper in the Scots 17th century style. The building is designed with two and three stories plus an attic, featuring a U-shaped plan and attached single-storey outbuildings on the west side. It is constructed from bull-nosed red, snecked rubble with ashlar dressings and includes sash and case as well as casement windows with glazing bars.

The entrance elevation faces east and showcases advanced end gables that are two and three stories high, both with crowstepped tops. A tall, elliptically arched entrance is set in the re-entrant angle of the south gable, topped with a broken pediment that has an apex pediment breaking through. There is a buttress to the right of the entrance. The central feature is a four-light, stepped stair window with stone mullions and transoms. Attached to the north gable is a polygonal bay with an independent roof. Each gable features a pedimented aedicule window at the attic level. The roof also includes three three-light dormers and axial stacks.

The plain east return elevation has five segmentally pedimented dormers and a central crowstepped gabled wallhead stack. The west return elevation is single-storey with a crowstepped gable and an advanced wing to the north. It features a ground floor bay window in the first return bay from the south, a first-floor cill band, and three segmentally pedimented dormers that break through the roof line. The crowstepped gable has an aedicule window in the fourth bay from the south, along with a further corniced wallhead stack.

The plain rear elevations repeat the main detailing of the building, and there are single-storey attached outbuildings to the east and south.