View from the South Beach railway bridge 1957

[down south]

I've been getting some old negatives and slides digitised, and here is one result of these efforts : views taken from the vanished railway bridge over the line at South Beach station, taken in 1957. Apologies for the zigzagged flaws in the foreground; I think they must have been part of the bridge or something.

This first one shows the platforms and the bridge on South Beach Road in the background. There's a distant view of the Castle as well :

This one is very similar, but shows more of Arran and the backs of the houses on South Crescent :

And this is a closeup of the view of the Castle :

One very interesting feature of the pictures is the large building on the far left. It would seem it was in the grounds of St Peter's School; and I think it must have been the gym, which burned down on the night of 22nd/23rd February 1964. I certainly well remember being taken there on the Sunday morning, and looking down from this very bridge at the smouldering ruins. Can any former St Peter's pupil confirm this ?

Susan

[Penny Tray]

Susan,

I had forgotten that there was once a footbridge at the Saltcoats end of the South Beach Station platforms, access to and egress from which, was mainly via a path along the Saltcoats side of St. Andrew's Church, presumably for the benefit of residents in South Crescent Road, Ardrossan, Montgomerie Crecent, Saltcoats, and Ardrossan Road, Saltcoats. I wonder if the path still exists?

[down south]

No , you can see from this Google Streetview that the path isn't there any more; a house has been built between the church and the burn. The path will have been where the drive is now.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@55.63937 ... &entry=ttu

The manse had a back door onto the path, and when my sister Anne and I walked along it on our way through the Plantation to go to school, the Davidson girls from the manse used to come out and join us sometimes.

Susan

[Penny Tray]

Thanks Susan. I suspected the path had gone, but also wondered if it had perhaps been designated a "right of way" through "long use" by the public, usually 20 years.

[down south]

The entrance at the other end to the station platform was closed off long ago, so it would have been a " highway to nowhere " if it had been kept; no doubt there's a mechanism for closing redundant rights of way.

You can see the entrance to the path, and its " kissing gate ", in this closeup of a 1960s postcard :

Susan

[down south]

There is actually a building marked along the back wall of St Peter's, just by the bridge, in this map from 1958 :

https://maps.nls.uk/view/188143053

But it's still there in later maps, so it doesn't look as though it can have been the gym. Besides, the gym was definitely part of the main building, according to the report of the fire here in the Golden Jubilee Book of St Peter's Church ( further down the page, in the section devoted to St Peter's School ).

Susan