32 Neville Street, The County Hotel (Thistle)

This building was listed Grade II in 1987 with the following description:
'Hotel and shops. Hotel incorporates the upper floors of Nos 28,30,34 and 36 NEVILLE STREET, Nos 1-17 odd GRAINGER STREET and the second floor of No.51 WESTGATE ROAD. East front 1874 by John Johnstone, South Front 1897 by HM Graham. Sandstone ashlar; purple slate roof and copper domes. Italianate style on earlier front. Main south elevation mild Baroque. Plan: Angled L-plain occupying one end of a city block. Late C19 and modern shops on all 3 fronts, on ground floor. South (entrance) front 5 storeys and attic 9 bays, symmetrical. Projecting quoined centrepiece with recessed modern door and fanlight in cast iron porch; balcony over. Ground -floor shops retain their stone dividing pilasters and fascia. Carriage arch in left bay; angled right corner with granite column supporting first floor. Round-arched first-floor centre window with rusticated archivolt and triple keystone. Paired flanking windows. Other first-floor windows shallow canted bays, except for pointedd bay at left and angled bay at right corner. Cast iron balcony at second-floor level. Outer bays rise as half-octagonal projections, with floor strings and cornices. Upper windows paired sashes in architraves eaved on second and third floors, the latter with alternately segmental pediments. Deep modillion top cornice except in outer bays which have strapwork drums under domes. Central shaped and pedimented gable, with shell niche; 3 paired-sash dormers at either side. East front 4 storeys and attic; more elaborate design. 15 bays in all. 3-bay left section as South front. 3 right bays plainer to balance. Rusticated ground-floor pilasters retained between later shops, and bracketed farcia cornice above. End sections have paired windows in giant round-arched recesses. Centre section has paired sashes. Elaborate window treat- ment includes carving, attached columns, euriched cornices on second and third floors; toppd by 3 groups of 3 large shaped, coped gables with urn finials. 4-bay north front on Westgate Road similar to right bays of east front.'
Now the Thistle Hotel and shops and cafes. In 1890 it was announced that the County Hotel was to be enlarged. The lessee, Robert Brown, had purchased land to the west occupied by Lockhart's Cocoa Rooms. Here he built two shops at street level, a coffee room above and 40 bedrooms on 4 floors above that. The existing front of the County was demolished and a new frontage built further forward - the 135 feet façade that survives today. James Deuchar bought the County in 1920. LISTED GRADE 2