Craigend House Hotel, 15 Craigend Road

Craigend House Hotel is a Grade A listed building designed by William Leiper in 1898-9, with additions made in 1903 and a verandah added in 1920 by architect John Rutherford Johnstone of Troon. The building underwent further alterations and additions during the later 20th century. Originally an asymmetrical two-storey house with attic in Old English style, it has been converted for use as a hotel.

The main house is constructed of tooled, rake-jointed red sandstone at ground floor level with polished sandstone dressings. The first floor features half-timbering with harl, jettied out over the ground floor. A raised base course and timber string course divide the floors, whilst overhanging timber bracketed eaves and bolted timber bargeboards complete the external treatment. Polished, rake-jointed quoins frame the building, with polished, rake-jointed long and short surrounds to ground floor openings. These openings have chamfered reveals, sandstone mullions and transoms, and chamfered cills, whilst the first floor has timber mullions with projecting timber cills. Single-storey square-plan summer houses flank the eastern terrace, constructed partly of red rubble sandstone and partly of red brick facing with polished sandstone dressings, overhanging bracketed eaves, and pyramidal roofs. A rectangular-plan summer house at the centre features a red brick base course with timber fish-scale detailing at ground level, half-timbering and harl beneath overhanging swept eaves. The terrace is lined with rusticated, coursed red rubble sandstone columns. A later single-storey, whitewashed harl L-plan range to the north forms a residential courtyard.

The south-west (entrance) elevation displays a gabled porch centred at ground floor, containing a two-leaf timber panelled door set in a pointed-arched surround, with flanking trefoil-headed sidelights. Within this is a segmental-arched, architraved surround to a part-glazed timber panelled vestibule door. Bipartite windows occupy two bays to the left and right at ground floor respectively, whilst a tripartite window sits at first floor off-set to the left of centre. Flanking bays have bipartite windows at first floor, with a box-dormer in the bay to the right. A single window at both floors occupies a chamfered bay to the outer left; a four-light canted window at ground floor sits in a single-storey wing recessed to the outer left. A gabled bay advanced to the outer right contains a projecting four-light window at ground floor beneath a jettied first floor, with a bipartite window aligned above and a single window at first floor off-set to the left. A bipartite window sits beneath the apex, and a small trefoil-headed light appears at ground floor in the bay to the outer right.

The south-east (garden) elevation features bargeboarded gables breaking the eaves at the centre, outer left and right, with a wallhead stack partly masking the gable to the left. A four-light canted bay window off-set to the right of centre at ground floor contains a bipartite window in a canted bay above, set beneath an overhanging gablehead with decorative bargeboard. A seven-light canted glazing row at ground floor forms a chamfered angle to the outer right, with a bipartite window at first floor above. A five-light glazing row in a piended single-storey wing recessed to the outer right has a chamfered outer light; later single-storey additions extend beyond. A projecting three-bay arcaded verandah off-set to the left of centre features modern glazed infills to the round-arched openings and surmounts a timber balustrade enclosing a first floor balcony. A tripartite window at first floor sits beneath the central gable, with a single window at first floor off-set to the right of the wallhead stack in the gable to the outer left.

Small-pane leaded glazing appears at ground floor and small-pane timber casement windows at first floor, with modern glazing to the verandah and some replacement glazing at first floor. Various rooflights are present. The roof is of grey slate with red clay ridge tiles; some single-storey wings have copper roofing. Moulded copes with dentilled friezes cap the sandstone ridge and wallhead stacks, topped with circular terracotta cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods serve the building.

The interior retains original details to the entrance corridor and adjoining ground floor reception rooms. Extensive timber panelled wainscotting and timber panelled doors are complemented by plain timber cornices. A Tudor-arched ashlar door surround accessing the lounge, stair and bar features carved sandstone spandrels, engaged colonnettes, and coats of arms forming a decorative frieze, with a part-glazed two-leaf door. A Jacobean screen with turned balusters and arched entry divides the stair and lounge, with a balustraded stair rising to a first floor gallery and a triple-arched screen at the stairhead (now blocked with a door infill to the right). An arched-brace and tie-beam roof with king post crowns the stairwell. Principal fireplaces in the lounge and bar feature timber strapwork and bronze relief overmantles respectively. Carved pilasters with foliate capitals, some with grotesque heads, are accompanied by decorative timber friezes. An original tapestry frieze with floral and foliate detail decorates the bar. A fireplace in the reception room to the north of the entrance corridor has decorative carving to its pilastered frame and a painted overmantle.

The northern single-bay square-plan summer house opens with small-pane timber doors linking to the hotel addition to the north, with boarded timber doors accessing the rear car park and an engaged rusticated column to the south; red brick facing appears to the east. The southern summer house is enclosed with a boarded timber door from the terrace, a boarded timber elevation to the west, an engaged rusticated column to the north, and red brick facing to the east. Both have pyramidal slate roofs with ball-shaped finials. The rectangular-plan summer house at the centre is accessed from a boarded timber entrance in the terrace wall and has a three-light window centred in its eastern elevation, a canted window to the south, and a part-glazed timber door to the north with flanking small-pane sidelights. It has a piended slate roof with red tile ridging and is topped with a coped red brick stack to the north bearing a circular terracotta can.

The stone-slabbed terrace is fronted by regularly-disposed circular-plan rusticated columns with polished square-plan caps; a surmounting pergola is now missing. A full-length red brick wall encloses the terrace to the rear. Squat, polygonal sandstone entrance piers flank the entrance from Craigend Road, each featuring stylised angle buttresses and surmounting lamps.