Detail of lamp post outside the Victoria Hotel, 43-55 Victoria Street, Rothesay, Bute

Description Detail of lamp post outside the Victoria Hotel, 43-55 Victoria Street, Rothesay, Bute

Date 29/6/2011

Collection Records of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), Edinbu

Catalogue Number DP 103632

Category On-line Digital Images

Scope and Content Rothesay grew up around the 13th-century circular Castle, becoming a royal burgh in 1400/1. The town expanded north along the High Street until two major phases of land reclamation in the 18th and 19th century. This shifted the main axis of the town along the shoreline, with the creation of Montague Street (mid- to late 18th century) and Victoria Street (1839-40). Subsequent development of the town took place along the shoreline, particularly as the town’s popularity as a tourist destination grew during the 19th century. The town centre has developed in a fairly ad hoc manner, as with so many historic towns. This has continued into the 21st century with redevelopment of historic buildings such as the Court House and other smaller infill. This decorative cast-iron lamp standard is one of a pair which still stand outside the mid-19th-century Victoria Hotel on Rothesay's Victoria Street. The black-painted cast-iron lamp standards have splayed bases with foliate decoration, and a marble plaque between. The lamps are glazed with 'Rothesay Victoria Hotel' and a crown design on each face, topped by an arched pyramidal cap with a painted crown finial. These lamps would have formed part of a grand entrance to the hotel, the marble plaque between being the setting down point for coaches and carriages dropping off guests. Overlooking the Esplanade, the Victoria Hotel occupies one of the prime locations on Rothesay's seafront. A large, ten-bayed, four-storeyed hotel with a series of retail units on the ground floor, it has been refurbished during the late 20th century, but sill retains original features such as the lamp standards, as well as a mosaic tiled floor at the entrance, reading 'Hotel Victoria', and two large projecting box-bay windows in the outer two bays at first-floor level. The roof has a large central French pavilion style roof, and smaller towers in the outer bays, all topped with cast-iron brattishing.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/1243789

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap