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

Ayr Central Conservation Area Character Appraisal
Part One
Ayr Academy, Fort Street. Re-built on the site in 1880 by Clarke and Bell.
Amidst the restrained classical tenements, the B–listed 33–35 & 37 Sandgate are notable
for their greater use of classical reference. The sequence of 5 round-headed windows on
nos. 33–35 and the Venetian windows on no. 37 offer pleasing variety to the street, the latter
painted a deep red in contrast to the prevailing off-white. 27–29 Sandgate shares their
greater decoration and is markedly taller.
The terrace of 8–20 Sandgate follows irregular plot widths in a variety of 1–, 2– and 3–bay
tenements. 14 Sandgate is notable, being a single bay and lower than its neighbours, with
a tripartite, pedimented first floor window. Although all are 19th century buildings, the variety
in feu widths suggests that they follow the pattern of the mediaeval burgage plots.
The building line steps into the street significantly at the B–listed, crow-stepped 41 Sandgate
former County Club (1873) and stables, no doubt maintaining the narrowing of the street
to prevent the ingress of sand from the dunes as recorded in 1425. The stables form a
pleasant sequence of courtyards that lead on to Newmarket Street. The B–listed former
Post Office at 43 Sandgate (outside the current conservation area) stands out with its crowstepped
gable, the conical tower in the re-entrant corner narrowing the street further.
The southern part of Sandgate is more workaday with a much altered late 19th–century 2–
storey dropping to 1–storey terrace forming the west side, broken by the pedimented church
hall at 54 Sandgate and the striking former Sandgate Church (1845), an early exercise in
Norman Gothic Revival (B–listed). The east side of lower Sandgate has seen the Georgian
Sandgate House that stood on the corner of Boswell Park replaced with the unremarkable
post-war General Post Office. The Edwardian Baroque of the former Liberal Club at 67–71
Sandgate (1911) provides a robust anchor to the corner with Fullarton Street. The adjacent
single storey Bus Station offers a sedate conclusion to Sandgate, with its regular 11–bay
elevation of nine round-headed windows and entrances.
The town has provided a school since 1233 and it has been on Fort Street since the late 18th
century. Ayr Academy (1880) continues the tradition and this Grecian building represents
the teaching of Art, Science & Literature with medallions of Sir David Wilkie, James Watt and
Robert Burns above the entrance. The Mackintosh-inspired Art and Science Department
43