 | Peebles Hydropathic | Cost of original building (by John Starforth) £70,000. This building was burnt down and replaced by James Miller's hotel building.
PEEBLES. - The new Hotel - Hydropathic at Peebles, erected to replace the building destroyed by fire in July, 1905, was opened on Friday night. It occupies the old site east of the town, set high on the north bank of the Tweed. Designed by Mr J. Miller ARSA, Glasgow, it is in the Georgian style, and in that respect presents a marked contrast to the building it has replaced, which was Scots Baronial. The chief elevation shows an H-planned main block with two projecting wings, the total frontage being 210 feet. The accommodation includes a basement and four floors, two of which are placed in the high-pitched roof. In the centre of the main block a bay has been thrown out and balconies formed on first and second floors. It is crowned by a pedimented roof. The main entrance is protected by a domed porte-cochere. On each side of the doorway at the terrace level is a loggia of five arches. The piers of the arcade carry at the first-floor level of the main block a balcony, its sloping glass roof supported by light Doric columns with entablature and dentil blocks. The two wings have oriel windows, with mullions and transoms. Their roofs are of pavilion pattern. The whole of the walls are roughcast, harled, the woodwork is in pure white, and the roof-tiles are of orange red. At the east end, separated by a passage 12 feet in width, bridged over at the first-floor level, is an annexe which contains the dining-hall with kitchen accommodation, and at the back are other annexes for bedrooms and administrative purposes. Marble has been used for the entrance stair and floor of the main corridor, and the woodwork is of Australian Kauri pine stained. A corridor, 2l0 feet long and 13ft. wide, runs the length of the building, communicating at the west end with the conservatory, and at the east end with the dining-hall. The recreation-hall is 100 feet long by 40 ft., with stage at one end. The dining-room is pillared, 80 feet. by 40ft., and 18 feet high, with panelled ceiling. The bedrooms, numbering 200, are on the second and two upper floors. The cost of the building and furnishings has been £70.000. [Building News 29 March 1907 page 452] |