Navaar House Hotel, 25 Bog Road, Penicuik

Navaar House Hotel, 25 Bog Road, Penicuik

Built in 1895 with extensions added in 1910, this is a 2-storey house of irregular plan designed in the Old English style, now operating as a hotel. The building is constructed of rendered and painted brick with half-timbered upper floors, tile-hung gables, and tall brick stacks.

The northeast (principal) elevation is the most elaborate. A 3-bay block to the right features an advanced gable with the first floor projecting on decorative timber brackets. The ground floor contains an entrance porch centred between pairs of segmental-arched windows to left and right. The first floor has a tripartite leaded window at the centre, while a tripartite window with decorative upper panes sits in an advanced gabletted dormerhead to the left. The gable to the right displays a tripartite window flanked by pairs of painted terracotta roundels depicting cherubim. A gable projecting from the gable to the left has pairs of segmental-arched windows at ground floor and pairs of tripartite windows at first floor flanking the centre. A single-bay gable at the outer left contains a glazed timber door with a 4-light canted window at ground level, and a tripartite window at first floor advanced on decorative timber brackets. A bipartite window appears on the return to the left at ground floor, with a 4-light window centred at first floor. A 3-stage battered Germanic tower in the re-entrant angle to the outer left comprises a glazed timber door at its southeast face, windows between ground and first floors at the northeast face, windows at first floor on the southeast face, and windows at second floor on the southeast, southwest, and northwest faces. A flat-roofed addition adjoins to the left.

The southeast (entrance) elevation includes a 2-bay single-storey and loft coach house to the left with 2-leaf vertically-boarded sliding timber doors for vehicular access and a vertically-boarded timber hay-loft door in a red tile-hung gabletted dormerhead. An advanced flat-roofed addition to the right features a recessed modern glazed door and a recessed timber door with glazed upper panels alongside a 4-light window with multi-pane upper panels, adjoining the tower in the re-entrant angle.

The southwest elevation comprises a 5-bay block partly obscured by the flat-roofed addition at ground level. An advanced single-bay cat-slide roofed projection to the left has a 4-light window at ground floor and a 2-light window at first floor. The remaining bays show irregular fenestration at first floor, with one window appearing in a dormerhead breaking the eaves. An L-plan flat-roofed addition includes a modern timber door at the re-entrant angle with irregular modern glazing to its northeast and southwest faces. A blank gable to the coach house appears to the outer right.

The northwest elevation is a 2-bay gable with a stepped central flue advanced from ground through the gablehead. A 5-light rectangular window is advanced to the outer right at ground floor beneath a lean-to tiled roof, with a further window to the left at ground level and windows in bays at first floor.

The roofs are laid in rosemary tiles with terracotta ridges and some exposed rafter ends. The tower has a pyramidal roof surmounted by a metal weathervane and weathercock finial. Shallow rectangular cat-slide dormers are present throughout. Cast-iron rainwater goods are fitted. Red brick decorative gablehead stacks and stacks breaking the pitch are corniced with circular cans.

The interior was not inspected as of 1999.