7 West Brae, Paisley

Late 18th or very early 19th century. This comprises two adjoining vernacular cottages on a sloped site. Number 5 is a single storey and attic, 4-bay former weavers' cottage with partial basement. Number 7 is a single and 2-storey, 2-3 bay vernacular tenement cottage forming two separate dwellings internally. Both are built of coursed droved sandstone rubble with droved long and short quoins and ashlar dressings, now painted. All openings have ashlar margins. The roofs are steeply pitched with skew gables.

On the south-east principal elevation, Number 5 has a small timber door to the extreme left leading to a subterranean room. At ground floor level are two steps leading to a later timber entrance door in the third bay, with a single window to the fourth bay (weaver's accommodation). The first and second bays contain bipartite windows (weaver's workshop). The attic has bipartite timber dormers to the outer bays, positioned adjacent to the gables with catslide slated roofs and slated cheeks. Number 7 has a 3-bay ground floor with a later timber door to the left and small plain windows to the centre and right. The first floor has a window placed off-centre to the right above the door and a similar window aligned between bays 2 and 3.

The south-west and north-east elevations are gabled ends with gablehead stacks. The south-west gable is shared with Number 3, while the central gable at the wallhead of Number 5 rises between the two properties. Number 7 has an asymmetric north-east end gable with a 2-storey wallhead to the left (front) and single storey wallhead to the right (rear), with a plain timber entrance door to the upper storey.

On the north-west rear elevation, Number 5 has three single windows and a door aligned with those on the principal elevation, with a plain roof requiring no dormers. Number 7 has a single storey rear elevation with a door to the right and window to the left beneath a long roof.

The windows are original 16-pane timber sash and case windows, except for later 4-pane glazing in the ground floor windows on the south-west elevation of Number 5. The bipartite dormers retain original 16-pane glazing. The very steep pitched slate roof to Number 5 incorporates slated bipartite catslide dormers flanking a central 2-pane cast-iron Carron light, with lead ridging. The relationship between the gable height and roof suggests previous thatching. Number 7 has a similar dormer-less roof. Painted cast-iron rainwater goods and gutters are carried on a moulded eaves course. The gablehead stacks are built of coursed ashlar with band course and plain cans, though the wallhead stack to the rear of Number 5 is now missing.

Number 5 contains a stone basement with an earth floor, accessed by a door on the main elevation. The entrance door leads to a through close with a rear exit. The large open-plan ground floor room to the south-west served as the weaver's workshop and has a main fireplace in the gable and a smaller fireplace between the second and third windows of the rear elevation. The attic is accessed by a small timber staircase and lit by two front-facing bipartite dormers. A further ground floor room lies to the north-west of the passage, with all rooms being plain and basic in character.

Number 7 is arranged as a tenement with two tiny dwellings. Ground floor access is through the main entrance door, while a small door in the north-east gable provides access to the other property. Both dwellings are basic and vernacular in character.