Hydro Hotel, Innerleithen Road, Peebles

The Hydro Hotel, built between 1905 and 1907 by James Miller, is a large, three-storey and double-attic Queen Anne style hotel with later additions to the rear and sides. The exterior is predominantly cream harl, with some areas of squared and snecked red sandstone rubble at the rear, remnants of an earlier building constructed in 1881 and destroyed by fire. There is a deep, dentilled eaves cornice.

The front (south) elevation has eleven bays with three-bay projecting pavilions. The main block features a central, gabled projecting entrance bay with a substantial square porte-cochere supported by twinned Tuscan columns on panelled pedestals, topped with a semi-circular glass dome. Above the entrance is a keystoned bull's-eye window in the gable. Balustraded balconies and canted glazed bays are positioned above the first floor. Flanking bays have projecting, segmental-arched loggias at ground floor, now glazed-in and forming a walkway at the first floor level. The pavilions have two-storey canted and glazed projections extending outwards, with Venetian windows and embossed bronzed aprons. Two tiers of pedimented attic dormers are present, except for the lower tier on the main block.

The west elevation features a rectangular, two-storey, five-bay dining room annexe with tall windows on the south side and a blank canted projection to the east. The north (rear) elevation retains a five-bay, three-storey sandstone block, the only surviving part of the original hotel, with a two-storey bowed projection at the centre. The east elevation consists of a ten-bay structure, including a two-storey, five-bay modern extension with a glazed link.

The interior contains well-preserved period features. Notably, the Bannockburn Room is the only remaining interior from the 1881 building; it contains a panelled dado, a Baronial plaster ceiling with pendants, and a large mural depicting the Battle of Bannockburn, painted around 1888 by Ernst Philipp Fleischer as part of a former panorama exhibit. A ballroom at the rear has elaborate plasterwork, Ionic pilasters, a cartouche, a segmental proscenium arc for a stage, and a barrel-vaulted ceiling with a large multi-pane skylight. The dining room has shallow pilasters with volute capitals and a deeply dentilled, compartmentalised ceiling.

Broad terraced steps lead from the hotel down to lawns below, complete with a fountain and urns. Originally, multi-pane cross casement windows were used, although some have been replaced. The roof is steeply pitched, covered in rosemary tiles in a piend style, with platformed chimneys and harl-rendered stacks.