Statue Of Sir Walter Scott, Waverley Hydropathic Hotel, Waverley Road, Melrose

The Waverley Hydropathic Hotel, built on Waverley Road in Melrose between 1869 and 1871 by James C Walker, with further additions in 1876, originally served as the Waverley Hydropathic Co Ltd. The building is a four-story early mass concrete structure. Later additions and alterations have included modern two-story pitched roof extensions and single-story flat-roofed additions to the north side, now enclosing a rear courtyard.

The exterior is rendered concrete with decorative mock ashlar detailing, including string courses between floors, raised long and short quoins, and raised window margins supported by moulded console brackets. The roof is slate, but the original roofline has been lost due to the removal of wallhead and ridge stacks from the main block and west wing. The windows are mostly four-pane sash and case windows with timber frames; those on the first, second, and third floors are decorated with bead and reel mouldings, while those on the ground floor have simpler cavetto mouldings.

The south-facing elevation comprises two blocks. On the right is a taller, six-bay, four-story block, while on the left is a lower, seven-bay, four-story block with an altered entrance porch at its center. A four-story, square-plan, parpeted tower is recessed in the southwest re-entrant angle to the right of the west block. The east block has symmetrically arranged openings, with two projecting canted bays rising to the second floor, each topped with a balustraded parapet, a pair of plain bays at the center, and single plain bays on either side. Wallhead stacks over the canted bays have been removed.

The west block features seven bays, with the center five arranged symmetrically. An advanced central bay has a porch, and a projecting bay on the west side has a full-height canted window. The east bay rises above the wallhead as a tower, with a modified parapet and a blocked-out original open-work balustrade now rendered solid in concrete. A flat-roofed porch was altered in the 20th century; the first floor originally featured a tripartite window positioned internally. The roofline has been simplified with the removal of stacks and finials.

The west elevation has seven bays, including a two-bay central projection, two plain bays on the left, and three bays on the right, with a stair bay at the center.

The rear elevation is largely obscured by modern additions, but a full-height canted bay is located in the northeast re-entrant angle.

The east-facing flank elevation displays a narrow gable front with a three-story canted bay and a balustraded parapet. A five-story polygonal tower is situated on the right at the northeast angle, featuring rectangular windows on all elevations except the fifth, which has paired round-arched windows; all windows have bead and reel moulded timber frames. The tower is topped by a slate spirelet with a bell-cast eaves and a simple weather-vane finial at its apex.

Six cast-iron lamp standards are present: two pairs at the east and west entrances, and two at the forecourt. The standards feature polygonal cast-iron shafts on chamfered plinths, with taller turned cast-iron shafts for the lamps at the forecourt and shorter moulded bases for those at the entrances. The interior of the hotel was not inspected in 1991.

A white marble statue of Sir Walter Scott stands to the south of the building.