Queen Mary's House, Queen Street, Jedburgh

Queen Mary's House, Queen Street, Jedburgh

A late 16th-century urban laird's house, substantially preserved with minor later alterations. The building displays a T-plan, comprising a three-storey, four-bay oblong hall block with a square four-storey stair tower attached to its east side. It is built of exposed rubble with dressings of local yellow, grey and red freestone. Most windows feature relieving arches. The building has crowstepped gables with gablehead stacks, and the hall block features swept-roofed dormers breaking the eaves.

The west elevation facing Queen Street presents a regular three-storey, four-bay front with the central bays grouped together. The ground floor is largely blank except for small windows at the centre and to the right, and an arched pend at the far right with a hoodmould. Above the pend sits a recarved 17th-century panel of arms within a much later frame, which has displaced the first floor window to the left. Windows occupy all bays at the first and second floors, with the second floor windows breaking the eaves through swept dormerheads.

The north elevation features a gabled right jamb advanced from the main wall. This elevation is predominantly blank except for a small window at the first floor to the left, created in a blocked opening with a relieving arch, and a gablehead stack. A further jamb projects at right angles to the left, containing small windows at the first and third floors.

The east elevation is dominated by an advanced gabled four-storey tower at its centre, with small windows to all floors except the ground, and a gablehead stack. On either side of this tower the wall recedes in a three-storey range. The left section contains a shallow arched pend at ground level and a small window, a large window at the first floor, and a second floor with a half-dormer as described above. Where this left section meets the stair tower, the upper floors are corbelled out above the ground floor with a conical roof crowned by an iron ball finial. The right section of the recessed range has two windows at ground level. The wall above is corbelled out to accommodate a fireplace, with a window inserted at first floor level and later blocked; another window sits to the right at first floor. A large pibartite half-dormer occupies the second floor, as above, with timber mullion.

The south elevation features a blank advanced gable to the left, with a blocked door and small window at ground level to its right and a gablehead stack. The tower stands to the right with a door at ground level and small windows to upper floors, with the stair tower in the reentrant angle featuring the corbelled detail described above.

Windows throughout comprise a variety of timber sash and case and casement types. The roof is covered in grey slates, with coped dressed rubble stacks. Corbel skews detail the angles of the gables.

The interior was heavily restored and converted to a museum and visitor centre by Page and Park Architects, Glasgow in 1986. A door was created in the north wall of the pend giving access to a vaulted entrance lobby and a vaulted rubble hall beyond with a projecting fireplace at the north end. A spacious platt stair terminates at the first floor, continuing as a left-handed turret stair above. A large first floor room is plastered with a continuous corbel course on its long walls supporting the ceiling. Fireplaces occupy the north and east walls, the latter featuring a corbelled lintel. A smaller room to the south retains much restored panelling. The second floor rooms are lined with modern tongue and groove panelling, with a small fireplace featuring a corbelled lintel in the north-east corner and a coombed ceiling.

Boundary walls are of saddleback coped rubble ashlar, lowered to the front of the house on Queen Street and fitted with cast-iron railings and gates. A rubble lean-to shed with corrugated iron roof abuts the boundary wall at the south of the site, with a temporary toilet enclosure nearby. A Victorian cast-iron street lamp stands immediately to the north of the house within its garden.