47 North Bridge Street, Hawick

47 North Bridge Street, Hawick

This is a Grade B listed building comprising two distinct but internally connected Dutch-inspired Art Nouveau blocks, designed by James Pearson Alison in 1900. Both blocks feature shops at ground floor with tenements above.

No. 45 is a symmetrical 2-storey and attic building with 3 bays and a gabled roof. It is constructed from squared, roughly coursed red sandstone with lightly stugged finish and polished ashlar dressings. The ground floor has a large central round-arched shop window flanked by two depressed-arch doorways, with a deep bracketed cornice above. At the outer bays, there are 4 stone steps leading to small-pane-glazed doors in corniced depressed-arched surrounds. Above these doors are key-blocked oval windows, while the central bay features a round-arched opening with panelled voussoirs containing plate glass. The first floor displays oriel windows with scalloped parapets in the outer bays, and mullioned quadripartite windows in the centre bay. The attic floor has a mullioned quadripartite window in the centre bay, with an arrowslit window and curved apex to the gable.

Internally, No. 45 contains an entrance lobby accessible through the left door, which features a floor mosaic bearing the monogram 'JPA'. Beyond this is an internal half-glazed secondary front door within a round-arched architrave, leading to a hall with a timber balustraded staircase displaying Arts and Crafts detailing. An oval stair window lights the first floor. The first floor has 2-panel timber doors, some with Art Nouveau copper fittings. The second and attic floors have 4-panel timber doors. Various cornices are present throughout. The first and second floor windows feature leaded lights with decorative wrought-iron catches, and the centre windows of the oriels contain heraldic stained glass dated 1900. A cast-iron corner fireplace occupies the rear attic room.

No. 47 is a symmetrical 2-storey and attic building with 3 bays, also constructed from lightly stugged red sandstone ashlar with polished dressings. The ground floor features an arcaded shop with key-blocked voussoirs and semi-octagonal engaged pinnacles rising from the springing point. The central arch has ornate carving to its spandrels. Above the shop runs a continuous fascia with pilasters topped by semi-octagonal capitals, extended lantern-shaped consoles, and a moulded cornice. The glazed central door is set in a depressed arched surround with banded voussoirs and decoratively carved spandrels containing blank escutcheons. Plate glass windows in the outer bays sit within segmental-arched surrounds with banded voussoirs. The first floor has corniced tripartite mullioned and transomed windows in the outer bays. The outer bays at the upper levels are crowned with pedimented tripartite windows within shaped gables bearing open segmental pediments and finials, linked by a panelled parapet. A later tripartite dormer window was added to the attic. The shop front contains fixed plate glass, though non-traditional windows now serve the flats. A large flat-roofed 20th-century extension extends at ground floor and basement level to the rear.

Internally, No. 47 has had all internal walls and decorative features of the ground floor removed. An original scale-and-platt stone staircase with cast-iron balustrade and polished timber handrail rises from ground to first floor, with half-glazed timber landing doors to the flats. A timber scale-and-platt stair serves the second floor. Four-panel timber doors, timber panelling around front windows, timber boarding around rear windows, and cornices and timber chimneypieces feature in each flat. Some cornices and timber panelling remain in the cellar.

Both blocks share common features: stone skews, corniced ashlar end stacks with circular red clay cans, grey slate roofs, and cast-iron rainwater goods with decorative hoppers.