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Hawick, Carnarvon Street, Messrs Turnbull's Dyeworks
Dye Works (20th Century)
Site Name Hawick, Carnarvon Street, Messrs Turnbull's Dyeworks
Classification Dye Works (20th Century)
Canmore ID 95510
Site Number NT41SE 52
NGR NT 49905 14718
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/95510
- Council Scottish Borders, The
- Parish Hawick
- Former Region Borders
- Former District Roxburgh
- Former County Roxburghshire
2-storey and attic, 8-bay, rectangular-plan office building with striking 5-stage Modern Movement water tower and single-storey sheds to NE and NW. Harled brick and red ashlar sandstone dressings. Ashlar base course, pronounced cornice to 1st floor, moulded eaves course. Regular fenestration with margined openings to all floors. Multi-pane top hopper windows, cast-iron rainwater goods.
One of the more distinctive buildings related to the Hawick textile industry, the former Turnbull's office block has considerable architectural quality in terms of its detailing, and the contrast between the light render and red brick. The tower is a striking addition to the townscape and is designed in a proto-Modernist style, the earliest example of this style to appear in Hawick. It is believed to have held a water tank for sprinkler systems. Overall the office building dominates the surrounding streetscape, much of which has been redeveloped. As such the building forms important evidence of the dominance of the textile industry in the town, and the grandeur of many of the buildings associated with it.
Alexander Inglis (1877-64) was the nephew of the Hawick joiner-architect John Inglis, to whom he was initially apprenticed. He was subsequently articled to James Pearson Alison, Hawick's most prominent architect, from August 1891 until 1896, and remained there as an assistant, studying under the South Kensington Schools and spending his holidays and spare time visiting the Borders abbeys; later travels took him to France and Spain. By 1900 he had become an extremely competent designer in the Lorimer mode and had his work illustrated in 'The Builder'. In January 1901 he moved to the office of Leadbetter & Fairley in Edinburgh, but he left at the end of the same year to return to Hawick following the death of his uncle and his inheritance of the joinery business, which he continued as both architect and contractor from the beginning of 1902. By 1911 he had established a Building Construction course in Hawick which had been taken over by the School Board there.
Turnbull's was the largest dye works in the Borders. A reinforced concrete building was added in 1920 and demolished in 1990, along with the chimney which bore the letter T. (Historic Environment Scotland List Entry)
Sbc Note
Visibility: This is an upstanding building.
Information from Scottish Borders Council.
