This three storey, eight sided, stone water tower was designed by
William Middleton and built in 1841 to produce better drinking water for
a town that lay on a low spit of land between Montrose Basin and the
North Sea. Originally called the Lochside Cistern, it was designed in a
Tudor style to fit in better with the victorian villas in the street. After
becoming surplus to requirements it was B-listed on 11 June 1971 and
became more and more dilapidated for thirty years before being bought
and converted into a private residence on four floors. It is easily spotted
north of the town centre on the east side of the main road heading
north.
On the 1st edition OS map it is depicted as a
reservoir. On the 2nd edition OS map it is depicted as a pumping
station for the Montrose Water Works. It is an octagonal three-storey
tower with Tudor-gothic detailing. The frontage is of sandstone
ashlar, rusticated at the ground-floor, and the masonry is squared and
snecked to the rear. There is a parapet with corner pinnacles and
gables on alternate sides. The margins are deeply chamfered, and the
cills battered. The windows to front west elevation have stepped
heads and hoodmoulds. There is a stone-mullioned tripartite with a
stepped head on the second floor of the north elevation. The roof was
used for fire watching during the Second World War. It was converted
to residential use in the 1970s.