Mid Calder, Bank Street, General
General View
Site Name Mid Calder, Bank Street, General
Classification General View
Canmore ID 214686
Site Number NT06NE 75
NGR NT 07560 67622
NGR Description From NT 07483 67566 to NT 07633 67628
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/214686
- Council West Lothian
- Parish Mid Calder
- Former Region Lothian
- Former District West Lothian
- Former County Midlothian
Bank Street
Good late 18th-century street architecture against the leafy backdrop of Calder Wood. Developed after the arrival of the Edinburgh/Glasgow turnpike in 1763, Bank Street has become Mid Calder's premier space; particularly attractive in the way the road exits at an angle at both ends making the space appear closed. The Torphichen Arms, c.1763, is the customary inn built by the laird. White-painted hostelry with scrolled skewputts, a later bay window and a handsome door.
Main Point
The fine, harled, curving bow terminating a row of substantial houses is the cynosure of Bank Street. Restored from a shell in 1987, it has distinguished triple window above a handsome stone-margined door. Pretty, ashlar cottage with fine, bracketed doorway alongside. These houses are Janus-faced; north frontage different from south. This row, once Bridgend, originally lay south of the main road to Edinburgh, until the handsome South (now East) Bridge was constructed in 1794 with its oculus (round hole) in the middle. The walk up School Lane leads past the schoolhouse out to the Cunnigar (or Kinnungar), a curious tree-covered tumulus that offers lovely views of the countryside to the north.
The north side of Bank Street is the finest row of houses in Mid Calder; two-storey, late 18th-century, some harled, some limewashed and some rubble. The Pend, 1982, is a courtyard of harled town houses through a pedimented pend.
17 Bank Street, c.1860
Swaggering ashlar façade in the style of the British Linen Bank; corner pilasters with scrolls terminating the cornice, stringcourse, edged window surrounds, and cornices to main entrance and windows. Adjacent, No 15, is ashlar, with quoins and tall chimneystack, possibly by the same designer as South Lodge of Calder House.
Taken from "West Lothian: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Stuart Eydmann, Richard Jaques and Charles McKean, 2008. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk