Annan, 5 High Street, Bridge House
House (18th Century), School (18th Century)
Site Name Annan, 5 High Street, Bridge House
Classification House (18th Century), School (18th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Port Street; (Former) Annan Academy; Grammar School
Canmore ID 66518
Site Number NY16NE 65
NGR NY 19148 66535
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/66518
- Council Dumfries And Galloway
- Parish Annan
- Former Region Dumfries And Galloway
- Former District Annandale And Eskdale
- Former County Dumfries-shire
Adjoining 3-bay, 5-storey with basement mid C18 townhouse. Formerly used as the Academy, Thomas Carlyle was both pupil and teacher at the school.
Large classical townhouse, extending to 5 bays and rising to 3 storeys with basement. Rubble-built with ashlar dressings and rusticated quoins, the house was altered in the 19th century with several openings enlarged on the ground and first floors. 12-pane sash windows sit throughout. The roof is in slate. The front elevation features a central doorway in an architraved and pedimented doorpiece approached via steps with iron handrails. A second door, originally a window, sits to the right. The 3 bay rear elevation features central stair windows. A recessed lower 2 storey wing (Nos. 5-7 High Street) projects to the west. The interior retains most of the original woodwork, plasterwork and staircases, and some classroom fittings.
The house was purchased by the Burgh Council in the 1790s and became the Annan Academy in 1802, at which Thomas Carlyle was both pupil and teacher. The preacher Edward Irving and explorer Hugh Clapperton also studied here. The Academy closed in 1820 with the opening of Hugh Ker's replacement block on Ednam Street.
Publication Account (1981)
Prior to 1739, the schoolhouse of the burgh stood in the churchyard. In that year the town council deciding that 'the schoolroom formerly built by the burgh in the churchyard is now so much out of repair that it is become quite uninhabitable' resolved to remove the material from the structure and build a new schoolhouse in the burgh's 'common loaning' (Port Street) 'in the cheapest and most convenient manner' (Steel, 1933, 82).
Information from ‘Historic Annan: The Archaeological Implications of Development’, (1981).
