Royal Hotel, 23A-25 Main Street, Uddingston

Royal Hotel, 23A-25 Main Street, Uddingston

A 3-storey tenement building constructed in 1876 by builder Wilson Walker at a cost of £12,000, replacing the village quoting green and its row of thatched cottages. The building comprises 19 bays across its Main Street elevation, with shops at ground floor and the former hotel occupying the corner with Bellshill Road, which is marked by a distinctive conical-roofed corner tower.

The building is constructed in red ashlar sandstone at ground floor level to number 25, with mostly original shopfronts elsewhere, whilst the upper storeys feature polished ashlar sandstone with polished dressings. A base course runs continuously around the building, with a cornice above the shop fascias. A cill cornice marks the 1st and 2nd floors, and all these horizontal lines continue uninterrupted around the corner tower. A string course runs below a consoled cornice above, with a further cornice positioned between the 1st and 2nd floors of the tower itself. The tower is crowned with a consoled and scalloped cornice. Windows throughout are defined by moulded, architraved margins, with pedimented treatments at 1st floor level. The tower windows have chamfered reveals, whilst channelled quoins mark the building's corners.

The Main Street elevation is grouped as 4-10-5 bays. The central 10-bay block is slightly recessed and contains four shopfronts with two close doorways at ground level. Above, windows are arranged in groups of 3-2-2-3 at 1st and 2nd floors. Tall wallhead stacks are evenly distributed above.

The left 4-bay block projects slightly forward and features two shopfronts with a close doorway between them at ground level. The 1st floor contains two pedimented windows flanking the centre, with two segmental-pedimented bipartite windows to either side. A date plaque to the centre, inscribed with the builder's initials WW and bearing a fan motif, is surmounted by an arched cornice with a block above at 2nd floor level. This floor is lit by two single windows and two flanking bipartites.

The right 4-bay block also projects slightly and incorporates the corner tower to its outer side. At ground level is a moulded round-arched doorway with a mask keystone, flanked by channelled pilasters with heavily carved consols supporting a segmental pediment, positioned to the left; a shopfront occupies the outer left; a single window sits centrally; and a bipartite window is placed to the right. The 1st floor has a single pedimented window flanked by two segmental-pedimented bipartites, whilst the 2nd floor displays single windows flanked by bipartites. A fan motif with round-headed cornice and wallhead stack sits above, with a further wallhead stack positioned to the right.

The corner tower features a modern door at ground level, formed from a 3-light window opening. Each floor above has a 3-light window, with three narrow windows positioned below the truncated conical roof, which is decorated with ornamental wrought-iron brattishing.

The Bellshill Road elevation comprises 4 bays and is highly decorative. The bay to the left of centre contains an exceptionally ornate doorpiece featuring Ionic colonettes and piers, with an entablature carrying a bracketed cornice and balustraded parapet. Angle dies and a central segmental panel ornament this composition, which is enriched with a harp motif and crowned with an acroterion. The door itself is a modern replacement of two leaves in timber panelling. The bay to the left features a window, whilst two bays to the right are spanned by a barfront. Windows to the 1st and 2nd floors match those in the corresponding right-hand bays of the Main Street elevation, with a tall wallhead stack positioned centrally.

The shopfronts are fitted with plate glass. Windows throughout are predominantly 2-pane timber sash and case windows, although some have been replaced with uPVC or hardwood equivalents. The roof is covered in grey slate, with slate also covering the conical tower roof; modern tiles have been applied to the 4-bay block to the left of the Main Street elevation (nos 7, 9 and 11). Tall, multiflue ashlar-corniced and shouldered wallhead stacks, some truncated, rise above the building, with seven original cans remaining to nos 23 and 25. Rainwater goods are cast iron, with some moulded replacements.

The hotel was constructed on a substantial scale reflecting contemporary commercial ambitions, as documented in Jamieson's historical record showing the building nearing completion in 1875-6. However, the enterprise proved unsuccessful, largely due to Sunday licensing laws of the period. Hotels were the only venues permitted to sell alcohol on the Sabbath, but sales were strictly limited to bona fide travellers. Local abuse of this provision led to disorder and undermined the hotel's viability.

The building forms an important townscape element within Uddingston, standing alongside the contemporary listed buildings at 2, 6 and 8 Old Glasgow Road.