By Hugh Dougherty
Ayr Station Hotel, built as an integral part of the town’ station in 1885 to a French Renaissance design, is under threat of demolition.
The hotel, one of three built and owned by the Glasgow & South Western Railway, and operated after 1923 by the LMS, was an early sell-off by the British Transport Commission in 1951, and has passed through the hands of several owners since then.
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Currently owned by Malaysian businessman Eng Huat Ung, who bought the structure in 2010 for £750,000, the Category B listed building, which carries the GSWR arms on its stonework, has been unused since then, and has now been placed on the Scottish Buildings at Risk register.
The condition of the historic railway hotel is now so dangerous, that Network Rail has had to take emergency safety action, erecting scaffolding and securing parts of the building to allow trains to operate and passengers and staff to walk safely below the structure, which includes the station entrance, and faces directly two of the station’s platforms.
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