Bruce Hostel, Twageos Road, Lerwick

Bruce Hostel, Twageos Road, Lerwick

This 2-storey hostel with attic was designed by W Laidlaw MacDougall and W W Reid between 1914 and 1923, with boundary walls by John M Aitken. It is a symmetrical 3-bay building with classical detailing and gabled 3-storey wings projecting at the rear to create a U-shaped plan. The walls are harled with polished and droved ashlar dressings. The base course, cill course at 2nd floor, band course and mutuled cornice at eaves are all in ashlar. Window arrises are stop-chamfered, and ground floor windows have stone transoms.

The principal north-east elevation is symmetrical, with channelled pilasters framing the elevation and a broad centre bay. The entrance is set back at ground behind a distyle screen of Tuscan columns, accessed by stone steps. The entrance door is glazed and panelled timber with a semicircular 6-pane fanlight, flanked by 6-pane fixed-lights with matching fanlights above. At first floor level is a 5-light window. An entablature corbels out to a frieze bearing the script "BRUCE HOSTEL" with flanking heart sculptures. The parapet breaks downward over the eaves and incorporates a segmental-arched armorial panel containing the date 1919 and a shield at centre. The outer bays have 7-light mullioned and canted bays at ground floor, with tripartite windows at first floor framed by channelled pilasters and segmental-arched pediments at eaves.

The south-east elevation is asymmetrical, a 3-bay end elevation to the right framed by channelled pilasters, with transomed windows at ground and bipartite windows at first floor. A 2-bay recessed wing projects to the left with transomed windows at ground and regular fenestration at upper floors, with gabled dormerheads breaking the eaves at 2nd floor level.

The north-west elevation mirrors the south-east elevation, except that one bipartite window at ground floor is blind and the wing has mullioned bipartite windows at ground floor.

The rear south-west elevation is nearly symmetrical, with modern infill at the centre and flanking gabled wings. Each wing has two windows in the inner left bay at ground, a narrow offset window, and a door in the inner right bay, with tripartite windows at first and 2nd floors.

The roof is purple-grey slate, piended and bell-cast to the main block, with cast-iron gutters and downpipes fitted with semi-octagonal hoppers. Red terracotta ridge tiles with finials run across. Corniced timber dormers to the north-east pitch are bipartite at the centre and outer bays, tripartite at the south-east and north-west pitches. The wings have overhanging timber eaves and slate roofs with terracotta ridge tiles to dormers. The main block has harled wallhead stacks at the south-east and north-west elevations with deep ashlar copes and battered red circular cans. Modern glazing has been installed throughout.

The interior features an entrance hall with a decorative timber floor and vertically-boarded timber panels to the dado, incised with hearts at the rail. Doors are 6-panelled and architraved. A timber screen below the staircase matches the dado treatment with an arched and glazed upper section. An ornate bronze urn supported by Chinese figures and surmounted by an eagle sits in the hall; two dragons were recently removed. The timber stair has a panelled newel with incised hearts in urn finials, plain square balusters with octagonal stanchions also incised with hearts, and a herringbone-patterned soffit. A 3-pane stair window with border glazing lights the stairs. At first floor landing level are a pair of architraved round-arched 3-pane windows with bracketed cills. Rooms flanking the hall contain timber chimneypieces.

The terraces feature ashlar steps at the centre with channelled parapets terminated by dies with bases and caps. Flanking harled retaining walls support an ashlar balustraded parapet with circular bastions at corners to the outer left and right, these bastions having crenellated parapets. The terrace returns along the side elevations. A secondary terrace wall to the north-east is random rubble with channelled cope and a wide opening at centre. Stugged drum piers with channelled caps are set at the opening, and the wall terminates to north and south with conical-capped drum piers integral to the boundary walls.

The boundary and retaining walls to the west are random rubble, terminated to the north by harled drum gatepiers with bases and conical caps. Random rubble boundary walls to the north, south, and west have square-section channelled cope. At the north-west, two-leaf timber entrance gates are incised with hearts and trefoils and hang from wrought-iron hinges. These gates are set between square ashlar piers with corniced caps. Flanking them are stugged squared and snecked quadrant walls with base course and blind arrowslits, curving forward to drum piers with arrowslits and conical caps. Stone steps lead to the centre, topped by square piers with bases, caps, and urns matching the internal stair. At the north-east corner a random rubble quadrant wall is stugged with stop-chamfered gatepiers and two-leaf vertically-boarded timber gates hung from wrought-iron hinges. The cope oversails as an arch with a keystone bearing a heart motif at centre. Stugged ashlar drum piers with bases and conical caps flank this quadrant.