Cathedral House, East Buchanan Street, Paisley

Cathedral House, located on East Buchanan Street in Paisley, is a complex of school and residential buildings constructed in phases between 1893 and 1912. The original building was designed by James Barr Lamb in 1893 as an Old Academy, with subsequent extensions by Frederick V Burke in 1905 and W R Watson in 1912. The structure is irregularly terraced and built in a plain domestic Gothic style, featuring two and three storeys with attics and a partial basement.

The exterior is primarily of squared and snecked sandstone with ashlar dressings. The 1905 extension to the rear is brick, while the 1912 extension utilizes harling on its rear elevation. Chamfered arrises, stone mullions, and an eaves course are present throughout. Relieving arches support the stonework of the 1893 and 1905 sections. The original sections were later combined as Cathedral House, serving as offices and a Priest's House.

The principal west-facing elevation (to East Buchanan Street) of the 1893 Academy consists of a five-bay entrance block set back, with a central door topped by a three-pane fanlight. Flanking the door are windows, and the first floor features windows with two-light upper sections over stone transoms. The center bay breaks the eaves with a jettied gablehead, displaying a cusped two-light window with a carved quatrefoil apron and a cross finial. Two basement windows are also present. To the right is an advanced gabled wing with single- and four-light windows at ground level. A projecting single-story lean-to porch is situated to the right, accompanied by two bipartite windows at the first floor. A small niche with carved detailing is set within the gablehead. The return elevation to the left features a segmental-arched, transomed tripartite window, and a plain, transomed tripartite window above.

The 1905 extension, designed to harmonize with the original building, is taller and features a plain two-bay gable on its west-facing elevation. It projects forward to create a courtyard with the Academy's L-shaped block. The extension includes a central door with a narrow flanking window and a tall fanlight, flanked by a tripartite window to the left and a bipartite window to the right. Two four-light windows are located on the first floor, and two bipartites on the second floor. A former tripartite window in the gablehead has been blocked, and mullions removed (as of 1999). The rear elevation is similarly detailed in brick, with a gabled dormer on the return to the north.

The 1912 extension, situated to the right, comprises five bays (grouped 1-4), with an outer left stair bay featuring a flat-roofed porch abutting the original 1893 building. Bipartite windows sit above the porch. The four bays to the right feature transomed tripartite windows at ground level and plain tripartites at the first floor. The center bay’s tripartite window breaks the eaves, incorporated into a gabled wallhead dormer with a carved roundel and cross finial. The building features timber horizontal-pane or plate glass sash and case windows. Stone gablehead and mutual gable stacks with battered coping are present in the 1893 block. Grey slate roofs and modern rooflights are also visible. Leaded/zinc battered polygonal stumps of former ridge ventilators remain on the Academy. The interior was not inspected in 1999. A stone coped dwarf wall, later fitted with railings, runs along the west side. A pair of square section gatepiers with pyramidal caps mark the entrance to the Old Academy.