The Crown hotel, Cowdenbeath
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South Lodge has a Grand Grade score of 0.72
Grand Bequest calculates the suitability, or ‘Grand Grade,’ that can be used to sort projects by viability and strengthens objective communication, supports decision-making, and promotes resource allocation to the most ideal projects for conservation taking into account aspects such as cultural significance, social benefit, financial sustainability and adaptability.
Learn more about Grand Grades here.
Cultural Significance
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Financial Sustainability
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Social Benefit
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Adaptability
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More about the building
HISTORY
Historic Origin
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The building was constructed in 1868 and opened as a hotel. While the original architect of the building is not known, Alexander Robertson designed the 1906 expansion and alteration of the hotel. Robertson was born in 1874 in Dundee. He attended the Dundee Technical College in 1890 before commencing an apprenticeship in Edinburgh with James White Maclean. While in Edinburgh, Robertson also attended Heriot-Watt College and The Royal Institute. He started practicing independently in 1903, and three years later, he designed the Crown Hotel as it’s known today.
Since its opening, the building changed ownership several times, always acting as a hotel. In 1903 after the building’s alteration, a notice was placed in the local paper letting the public know that the hotel was under new management and the proprietor was John Linn. The 1940 edition of the History of Cowdenbeath mentioned the property saying, “After 73 years still the most popular hotel". Then in 1945, the Crown Hotel posted an advertisement in the paper for the building's sale or availability to let.
The building has been empty since 2008, and in 2009 it caught on fire, gutting the interior and destroying the roof and upper floors. A couple of proposals over the years suggested tearing down the hotel. The plans designated the site for flats or other business buildings, but those all fell through. In 2017 a planning application was placed for the partially burned hotel to be renovated and turned into a restaurant. This project gained approval, and construction started in early June of 2021.
History of Cowdenbeath
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Cowdenbeath came into being in the 1820s when a stagecoach inn, The Old Inn, was built for travellers. This inn still exists today as the Bruce Hotel. The original Parish of Beath, located a mile away from modern-day Cowdenbeath, was built in 1835. In the area, there were four farms which the later districts were named after. One of these was the Cowdenbeath farm, whose name was selected for the village when it grew large enough to be considered a town. During her first visit to Scotland in 1842, Queen Victoria stopped briefly in Cowdenbeath. Around 1850 the Oakley Iron Company began mining iron ore in Cowdenbeath. The Iron mining led to the realization that the area was rich in coal. This discovery of coal and the building of the railway station in 1849 catapulted Cowdenbeath onto the map. The mining and transportation access attracted other industries such as ironworks and brickworks. During the height of the coal industry, Cowdenbeath was home to a mine rescue team and the Fife School of Mining. On November 24 of 1890, Cowdenbeath received Burgh status. As with many of the other small coal towns in the area, there was a huge initial boom and steady population growth until the mines began to close in the 1930s.
ARCHITECTURE
The building has two distinctive sections. There is the original hotel built in 1868 and the back portion which was added in 1906. The front half of the hotel which was built first, consists of two storeys of blond sandstone, with five bays. In the front, there are two openings for doorways, both with decorative stopped chamfers. One chimney remains even though the rest of the roof burned away during the fire. There is still a plaque that dates the building on the front face.
The back extension is two storeys done in white painted stone. All of the windows on the addition are cross windows with transom, mullion, and uneven light sections. The windows have bars across them on the ground level. The rear of the building has several entrances, including one leading up a metal staircase and platform to the second storey. On the back of the property, there is also a flat outdoor patio space.
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Current Condition
The Crown Hotel building has been empty since 2008. In 2009 the original building caught on fire, gutting the interior and destroying the roof and upper floors. While the four exterior walls remain, they have sustained fire and smoke damage. The back extension of the hotel also has some smoke and fire damage, but it still has its roof. The majority of the windows on the building are boarded up. There are a few windows on the extension that remain and have glass in them. Across the face of the building, there is water damage and vegetative growth from the dampness. It is assumed the interior of the building has similar damage.
