Ayr Central Conservation Area Character Appraisal - South Ayrshire ...

Ayr Central Conservation Area Character Appraisal
Part One
18th Century
Captain J Mackie, a traveller in 1723, described the
‘town of Air which looks like a fine beauty in decay’.
The collapse of trade with France during the wars,
particularly the importation of wine, contributed to a
decline in population to approximately two-thirds of its
late 17th century level.
The wine trade recovered from 1765, and other
businesses, such as fishing, tobacco imports, coal
exports, shoe-making, weaving and banking also
helped to revive the town.
The second half of the century was a time of relative
prosperity, expansion and improvement for Ayr. Cross
Street, now Newmarket Street, was formed within the
boundaries of old rig plots to link the High Street and
Sandgate in 1767. Fort Street was laid out in 1781.
Robert Adam submitted proposals in 1785 for a grand
scheme involving a remodelled Sandgate Tolbooth and
the construction of a new bridge and streets lining both
sides of the river. The New Bridge, based on Adam’s
design, and the New Bridge Street link to Sandgate
were built by Alexander Stevens in 1786.
© The British Library. Licensor: www.
scran.ac.uk.
Plan of Ayr from William Roy’s Military
Survey, 1747–55.
© Carnegie Library, Ayr
Engraving after Robert Adam’s
unrealised scheme for a bridge and river
front, circa 1785.
© Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk.
‘The New and Auld Brigs, Ayr’ by Henry Duguid, early 19th century.
The watercolour shows: the first New Brig on an axis with the old High Tolbooth steeple in Sandgate;
Alexander Stevens’ house to the left of the New Brig; the river before embankment; low gabled buildings
fronting the river; the Laigh Tolbooth steeple in the High Street; and the Auld Brig.
15