Station Hotel, Ayr

Station Hotel, Ayr

This is a French Renaissance hotel designed by Andrew Galloway and dated 1885. It forms part of Ayr Station and is constructed in coursed red sandstone. The building comprises a 3-storey and attic main section with a 4-storey and attic corner pavilion, plus lower single-storey, single-storey and attic, and 2-storey sections serving the station functions. The base course is bull-faced and battered, with channelled rustication applied to the ground floor of the principal elevation. Openings are architraved with projecting cills. Dividing band courses run across the facades, and deeply moulded eaves cornices top the main sections. The attic features pilastered sandstone rectangular dormers with deep entablatures and flanking scrolls. Decorative iron brattishing adorns the pavilion roofs.

The northwest (entrance) elevation contains an 11-bay section (E Block) with the main entrance set in the penultimate bay to the left. The entrance comprises an advanced pilastered porch with a round-arched keystoned doorpiece flanked by pilasters with sidelights, and a balustraded parapet above with dies. Further entrances occur at re-entrant angles. Tripartite stair windows serve the upper floors. The attic has a pilastered 3-light window beneath a segmental pediment, with an additional flat-roofed dormer at the rear. The centre bay features a canted ground-floor doorway with a 2-leaf door and fanlight flanked by narrow windows. Above this, consoles support a balcony to a pilastered 3-light bowed window on the first floor; a 2-leaf French window with fanlight and sidelights opens here. The second floor has a bipartite window, whilst the attic displays a decorative segmental-pedimented roundel dated 1885. A timber door opens from the ground floor of the third bay from the right. A modern addition obscures 2 bays on the outer right, with bipartite attic windows with pedimented central heads rising to the pavilion roof. The remaining bays show regularly spaced single and bipartite windows on the ground, first and second floors, with regular fenestration to the attic.

The west block (W Block) contains 10 bays with a 3-bay canted corner pavilion. A 2-bay right return adjoins the east block and has regular fenestration. Squat pilasters at the centre of the corner pavilion's ground floor support pilastered bipartite windows on each storey above; dies sit at the parapet corner angles at attic level. An infilled doorway flanked by a window occupies the ground floor of the bay to the right, with bipartite windows in the remaining bays at all storeys. Attic windows are round-arched with pediments, and clock faces appear on the steep pavilion roof, which has alternating straight and segmental pediments at the apex. The 10-bay block features an entrance at ground floor to the outer right and a tripartite window to the ground floor of the advanced pavilion bay to the left. Single and bipartite windows occupy the remaining bays at ground, first and second floors, with regularly placed dormers to the attic, except for a bipartite attic window with segmental pediment in the pavilion bay to the left. Irregular fenestration marks the adjoining 2-storey block to the left and an advanced bay to the outer left. Three recessed bays at the far left have a variety of timber doorways.

The southeast (platform) elevation of the east block shows 10 bays with infilled door and window openings at ground floor. A platform canopy sits over a First World War Memorial Plaque to the outer right. Round-arched openings mark the centre 6 bays at first floor, with bipartite windows in the 2 flanking bays to left and right. Single and bipartite windows appear on the second floor, and regularly placed dormers serve the centre 6 bays at attic floor, with bipartite dormers set in pavilion roofs at the outer left and right. A 4-bay right return with regular fenestration adjoins the west block.

The west block's platform elevation comprises 10 bays with a variety of window and door openings at ground floor. A canopy adjoins the bays to the left. Single and bipartite windows occupy the first and second floors, with regularly spaced dormers to the attic; a bipartite dormer set in the pavilion roof appears to the right of the attic. The adjoining 2-storey block to the right has irregular openings with a scrolled wallhead stack at the centre. Single-storey blocks adjoin to the outer right.

The northeast elevation displays a variety of gables. The southwest elevation is symmetrical, with blind pedimented openings at the centre and a segmental-arched gable broken by a wallhead stack.

Internally, the hotel displays good detailing including coffered ceilings with coved cornices, pilaster strips to walls, and panelled arches. Timber dado panelling and a composite marble fireplace are present. An ornate lift shaft features, alongside carved stair newels, decorative strings, and a timber handrail.

The station building itself, with its footbridge and canopies, adjoins the hotel. The southeast (entrance) elevation shows 15 bays with a recessed section to the outer right. A near-central double-pilastered pedimented entrance contains a 2-leaf timber door and fanlight, with single and bipartite openings in the flanking bays to left and right. An arch leads to the recessed canopied section to the outer right.

The northwest (platform) elevation comprises 24 bays, with a canopy extending to adjoin the hotel to the north. Arched entrances occur at the outer bays, with a square-headed open entrance to the centre and irregular openings to the remaining bays. An X-girder footbridge to the north crosses the platform. Decorative cast-iron columns with curved decoratively pierced brackets support the platform canopies.

The interior of the station contains a modern booking office.

Throughout, windows are predominantly plate glass timber sash and case. Roofs are slated with lead ridges, including pavilion roof platforms, stone skews, gablet skewputts, corniced ridge stacks, and circular cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods are employed throughout.

The site features two pairs of iron gatepiers flanking the main entrance, with the central pair supporting lamp standards that delineate the vehicular entrance. A coped boundary wall encloses the site, with railings atop sections of the walling.