Teacher's Training Centre, Seamill, West Kilbride

Teacher's Training Centre, Seamill, West Kilbride

A massive 2-storey building on a raised basement, designed by Bruce and Hay and constructed between 1893 and 1902. The structure follows an H-plan and was originally built as a convalescent home on ground that falls sharply to the west. It is constructed of squared, snecked and stugged cream sandstone ashlar with polished dressings. A moulded band course above the raised basement marks the principal floor level. The fenestration is regular throughout, with first floor windows that break the eaves and feature gabled dormerheads, while crowstepped gables punctuate the roofline.

The west garden elevation is symmetrical in U-plan form, with six bays at the centre where the first floor windows project forward with a stepped corbel course and a single gable between flanking pedimented windows. An ogee-roofed ventilator rises to the ridge at the centre. Projecting broader gabled outer bays have canted windows that are bipartite to the front and extend to the basement and ground floors with castellated parapets bearing initials (the southern parapet includes a plaque). The first floor features mullioned and transomed windows with stepped hoodmoulds. Single bay inner returns have gabled wallhead stacks, while 2-bay outer returns complete this elevation. Ball finials crown the gables.

The north principal entrance elevation has five central bays flanked by a projecting 2-bay tower to the west and a slightly advanced 2-bay gable to the east. The tower, dated 1895, features balustraded steps leading to the door at the right bay, which is now partly concealed by a modern glazed porch. The doorway has a rope-moulded arched cresting and a scrolled frame containing an inscription. The tower parapet is machicolated with gunholes and stepped crenellations. The west return includes bipartite windows and a corbelled stair turret that rises from the first floor to the roof. A single storey block to the east has a tripartite window and door.

The south secondary entrance elevation has four bays at the centre, with a broader gabled advanced bay to the east. A single storey piended-roofed lodge is attached at ground level to the east, with a turret at its east corner. A large entrance turret to the west features a roll-moulded segmental-headed door with hoodmould (dated 1902), a convex eaves course and a conical roof.

The east elevation presents a deep U-plan court flanked by single bay pavilions with gabled returns. A piended-roofed single storey and basement block occupies the court, together with a boilerhouse and brick stack.

Throughout the building, windows are timber sash and case with plate glass, the lower sashes having two horizontal panes. Corbel skewputts support the eaves, the roof is covered in grey slates with small gable ventilators and terracotta ridge tiles, and coped ashlar stacks serve the building. Cast-iron gutters, downpipes, hoppers and brackets complete the external detailing.

The interior includes etched glass screens to the lobbies. A pair of dog-leg stairs with turned and blocked timber banisters is present, with a stained glass window to the north depicting heads of Cooperative Directors. Additional stained glass windows in the basement Dining Room bear an inscription: "Gifted Through the efforts of The Employees of St George Co-op. Soc. Ltd. June 1935".

The lodge to the south is single storey with a raised basement, arranged over three bays with a centrally placed door flanked by large windows that break the eaves with gabled dormerheads. Double gabled returns include a blocked carriage arch and a service range to the west.

The boundary walls and gatepiers comprise a lengthy stepped coped boundary wall to the east with cast-iron railings between piers and a pair of gates. Square ashlar gatepiers with ball finials stand at the north, while grander piers to the north feature stop-chamfered arrises and corniced caps. Pyramidal caps crown the pair to the south, though one ball finial is missing.