Railway Hotel, Newtown St Boswells

The Railway Hotel is a mid-19th century railway hotel, extended in 1878 to form a U-plan Baronial-style terrace with a central courtyard. It is constructed of stugged red stone with droved ashlar dressings. The west, or principal, elevation features an earlier three-bay section recessed from the street, with a segmental pend arch to the right at ground level and a doorway within a chimney-headed gabled bay to the left of centre. This doorway is emphasised by a columned and architraved porch with squared, fluted columns. A window above the porch has a corbelled gablehead projecting around the window. There is a three-light window to the right of centre and a secondary door and window to the outer left, set within an advanced ashlar panel. The first floor has regular fenestration, with the later addition of three canted dormers, each with bracketed and bargeboarded gabled dormerheads. To the outer left, an 1878 two-storey wing has a chamfered inner corner, and a mirrored range was added to the right to create a near-symmetrical appearance. The inner elevation of the projecting range has bipartite windows and doors on the chamfered corner, with windows above. An end gable features windows to each floor.

The railway court is a range to the rear of the hotel, comprising single, two- and three-storey sections arranged in a terraced form at right angles, abutting an access lane to the Auction Mart.

Melbourne Place extends to the left of the hotel, mirroring the outer range but with a shop window at ground level in the end gable and a blank window above it on the first floor. This range is linked to a three-part terrace, including a two-bay piend-roofed property with a recessed shop door and a part-canted window and door leading to a flat at ground level, linked by a corniced shop fascia, with a bipartite and single window above. There is also a two-bay central gabled property with a segmentally-arched pend at the right, featuring corbel detail, and to the left, a two-bay gabled property with a shop window and door at ground level, a bipartite window, and a single window above. A panel reading ‘MELBOURNE PLACE 1878’ is positioned below a round-arched window in the gablehead. A final three-bay gabled property completes the terrace, with a flush-panelled door with a small-pane fanlight flanked by windows, a blind window flanked by windows at the first floor, and a square-headed window to the gable above.

Some modern windows have been replaced, but otherwise, the windows are timber four-pane and plate glass sash and case windows. The building has slate roofs, and stone stacks are present on the gableheads and ridge. Fleur-de-lys iron railings front the outer right property in Melbourne Place, situated on a saddleback-coped dwarf wall, enclosing a small four-court, with a two-leaf railed gate.