Including 1 And 2 Laidlaw Terrace, Hawick Library, North Bridge Street

This building, which includes 1 and 2 Laidlaw Terrace and Hawick Library on North Bridge Street, was designed by J N Scott and A Lorne Campbell and dated to 1904, with a sculpture by W Birnie Rhind. It features a 1939 extension. The library is predominantly a two-storey, rectangular-plan Free Style structure that has a prominent corner entrance tower and round-arched gables. It is constructed from coursed sandstone rubble with polished ashlar dressings, and includes a base course and eaves course. The building has rusticated quoins, fairly regular fenestration, stop-chamfered, stone-mullioned and transomed multi-light windows at the ground level, rusticated margins at the first floor, and cornices with slightly projecting cills throughout.

The east (street) elevation has three bays, while the north (river) elevation is composed of five bays, featuring two bays flanking a lower central three-bay section. The corner entrance tower is three-storey and octagonal, with an open-pedimented, Ionic-pilastered doorpiece, a pilastered arcade of segmental-arched windows at the top storey, and a corniced ogee roof topped with a finial. Both elevations have advanced tripartite outer bays with prominent curved gableheads, hoodmoulded oval ventilator plaques, and fruit carvings. The north elevation includes a lower pitched-roofed reading room with a central ball-finialed gablet. The 1939 extension is a rendered concrete reading room built on stilts over a carport at the rear, behind a side entrance pend.

The building predominantly features multi-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows, with slate roofs and stone skews. There are gable stacks at the northwest corner and cast-iron rainwater goods with square hoppers.

Inside, the main plan form has been preserved. The entrance hall features Ionic columns, a curved ceiling, and a broad timber staircase with turned timber banisters, along with a round-arched niche at the half landing. The entrance hall and stairs are lined with brown and green brick tiles to dado height (now covered, as of 2007). There are timber and glazed partitions, segmental ceilings with dentilled cornicing, and large shallow-pitch rooflights in the reading rooms. The caretaker's accommodation is located on the upper floors of the northeast bay, accessible via a separate small side entrance stair with cast-iron banisters.