37 Eglinton Street, Beith

37 Eglinton Street, Beith

Circa 1805. A 2-storey, 3-bay L-plan terraced house of substantial quality, built on what is recorded as Eglinton Street, the grandest street in Beith. The house includes a courtyard to the rear enclosed by an elevated garden.

The front elevation features 4 stone steps leading to a centrally recessed timber-panelled door set in a moulded architrave with cavetto reveals and entablature. A letterbox fanlight (altered) sits above. The walls are constructed of cherry-caulked whinstone with droved sandstone tabs and rubble foundations beneath a painted ashlar base course. Window and angle margins, the eaves course and moulded eaves cornice are all raised and painted.

The south (rear) elevation includes a square-plan stair tower positioned in the re-entrant angle of the rear range, lit by a single tall window. An additional brick-built outer stair, now covered with corrugated metal, runs from ground to 1st floor level and connects to the adjoining properties at 39 & 41 Eglinton Street. The rear range extends 3 bays to the west.

The original glazing to the front windows comprises timber sash and case windows with 12-pane glazing. Later alterations include 4-pane plate glass sashes and modern timber-framed glazing to the rear, though one original 16-pane window survives at ground-floor rear level. The roof is finished in grey slates in diminishing courses with a stone ridge to the main building. Two droved ashlar corniced gable stacks carry some original octagonal clay cans; a later red brick stack and a further ashlar stack have been added to the rear range. Cast-iron rainwater goods serve the property throughout.

The rear elevation includes a flagged yard with a long flight of stone stairs fitted with cast-iron railings, ascending to the elevated ground level. Ashlar sandstone obelisk piers and cast-iron railings mark the access, with a rubble whinstone wall to the side and rear boundaries. The statutory listing includes the stairs, boundary walls, railings and gatepiers as integral to the property.

The interior retains much fine original decorative woodwork and plasterwork throughout. The planning is typically classical with a symmetrical arrangement around a central hall and staircase (now covered with modern panelling in the vestibule and hall areas). The stair features a cast-iron balustrade decorated with acanthus motifs and a mahogany handrail.

The former dining room contains an original black fossiliferous marble chimneypiece, though the hearth has been bricked-up. Flanking 6-field panelled press doors flank the chimneypiece, and a chair rail runs around the room. The window embrasure preserves its original reeded surround and panelled shutters with top and bottom sections that operate separately. The elaborate cornice carries dentil, guilloche, rosette and diaper mouldings. A blocked opening reveals the original connection through to a former morning room at the rear.

The former morning room retains an original reed-moulded timber chimneypiece with corner roundels, an Edwardian gas lamp mounted to the wall above, a chair rail, and a plain moulded cornice. An architrave has been blocked at this point.

The former study features a plain chimneypiece with a panelled press door to the left and a cornice detailed with egg and dart moulding and cotton reel astragal. The ceiling is decorated with a square fleuron at each corner. An iron door leads to a concrete-lined strong room containing a safe by Fraser & Co, Glasgow.

The 1st floor former drawing room (which received a later decorative scheme) displays a chimneypiece with blue tiled insert, flanked by panelled press cupboard doors, a foliate cornice and ceiling rose.

The service wing in the rear range contains a stone service stair with plain cast-iron balustrade and mahogany handrail, and a well survives in the laundry room.

The architectural scheme is fundamentally classical with Regency style elements, particularly evident in the original chimneypieces. The 6-field panelled doors and window embrasures are of high quality and remain intact throughout. The exterior is very well preserved and presents an excellent example of early 19th-century domestic architecture.

Whinstone is a relatively uncommon domestic building material in Ayrshire, though more commonly found in the Borders, being generally reserved for road construction due to its exceptional hardness. A small number of contemporary whinstone examples survive in Beith, including 33, 35, 39, 41 and 60 Eglinton Street and the return frontage of 15-19 Main Street, all separately listed. Whinstone was quarried in many areas outside Beith, particularly to the north and east, and also at Barrmill.

The first owner, recorded in the title deeds, was James Crawford, a thread manufacturer in Beith who had established Crawford Brothers in 1775 at Crummock in Beith. In 1836 the Crawford family built a mill for spinning flax in 'North-bar', south-east of Beith, which employed at least 80 people. Several houses were constructed there to accommodate workers, leading to the formation of the village of Barrmill. Crawford feued the land in Eglinton Street in 1805 from Mrs Rebeckah Montgomerie and occupied No 37 until his death in 1849, when the house passed to his son Hugh. In 1871 it passed to Hugh's brothers James Crawford and Allan Campbell Crawford. The property has been in the ownership of Stewart & Osborne Solicitors since 1938.