Including Remnant Wall And Gatepier To Se Corner Of Site, Incorporating Fromer Crawford House With Assembly Room And Former Hamilton Palace Riding School, Low Parks Museum, 129 Muir Street

This site includes a multiphase museum that incorporates the former Crawford House, designed by James Smith in 1696, and a stable block by William Burn built between 1837 and 1842, with various alterations. The museum features a glazed southeast entrance and northern range additions that connect the two buildings, creating an irregular-plan enclosed courtyard complex completed between 1993 and 2000.

The former Crawford House is designed in an L-plan with a two-storey, six-bay symmetrical elevation on the south side, featuring a projecting central pediment, a steep-pitched piended roof, and heavy stacks. The building has paired recessed three-storey, three-bay wings on either side, with tall wallhead stacks. It is rendered with exposed margined quoins and window margins, and stone sundials are located at the upper eaves corners. A plain section added around 1784 extends to the west side, forming a long range that houses the Assembly Room and a former fives court at the rear.

Inside, as seen in 2013, some decorative finishes remain in the former house, while the upper floors were not observed. The Assembly Room features fine detailing, including a curved balcony supported by two slender Ionic columns, a plaster frieze on the bowed balcony front, a decorative cornice frieze with a combed ceiling, delicate ceiling roses, and a timber and tiled fireplace. The room has round arched windows with panelled timber shutters and six-panel doors with decorative carving. The former fives court at the rear has a curved boarded timber ceiling.

The former riding school block, built between 1837 and 1842, is a tall, six-bay rectangular building with a piended roof, constructed of red sandstone on the eastern side of the courtyard. It features high blind segmental arched elevations with semi-circular windows above a running horizontal cill course. The interior, also seen in 2013, has plasterboard cladding up to a high dado height, with original exposed stonework above and flat boarded ceilings in sections. Late 20th-century stairs, a mezzanine, and exhibit spaces have been added to the interior.

The house has 12-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows, while the former riding school and assembly room feature multipane arched windows. Both buildings have slate roofs with tall, shouldered corniced stacks on the house.