Description

Sir Robert Lorimer, 1907, with 1911 wings:- Interior decoration by Lorimer, Louis Deuchars, Scott Morton & Co, Thomas Hadden and Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts. 2-storey, 7-bay, L-plan Arts and Crafts house. Tooled coursed granite with raised finely finished margins. Rounded reveals; eaves course; curvilinear gables; curvilinear gableted windows breaking eaves to attic floor.

SW (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: near-symmetrical; centre 3 bays advanced and canted with turret roof; glazed door to penultimate bay to right of ground floor, flanked by window to outer right, regular fenestration to 1st floor. Regular fenestration to ground and 1st floors of 1911 penultimate bay to left and bay to outer left.

SE ELEVATION: asymmetrical; 4-bay. Window to ground and 1st floors of penultimate bay to left; canted window to ground floor of gabled bay to outer left, window to 1st floor, blind vertical opening set in gablehead. M-gabled penultimate bay to right and bay to outer right advanced, bay to outer right added 1911, flat coped wall advanced between bays with flat-roofed porch flanked by timber lean-to addition and low granite enclosure to re-entrant angle to right, regular fenestration to ground and 1st floors, blind vertical opening set in each gablehead; window to ground and 1st floors of left return of penultimate bay to right; flat roofed single storey addition to outer right, window to ground floor with curved outer angle; ground floor of right return obscured by single storey addition with 2 windows, window to centre of 1st floor.

NE ELEVATION: asymmetrical; 7-bay. 3-storey, half-engaged tower to bay to centre, window to ground floor, decorative pedimented window to 2nd floor; architraved doorway with central tooled panel reading "1907" to ground floor of right return under loggia, linen folded 2-leaf timber door, decorative pedimented window to 1st floor; crowstepped gables. Round-arched 1911 loggia advanced to ground floor of 2 recessed flanking bays to right, 2 windows to 1st floor; advanced flue to centre of wall at bay to outer right. Penultimate bay to left and 3rd bay from left slightly advanced, large stair window to right, flanked below by 2-pane window, small 4-pane bipartite windows to ground and 1st floors of penultimate bay to left. Gabled bay to outer left advanced, window off-centre to left of ground floor, paired windows to 1st floor, blind vertical opening set in gablehead; irregular fenestration to ground floor of right return, window to centre of 1st floor, flanked to right by 2 small 4-pane windows.

NW ELEVATION: 1911. Asymmetrical; 2-bay; canted window to ground floor of bay to right, flanked to left by window, window to each bay of 1st floor.

Predominantly 4-pane and 6-pane timber sash and case windows. Grey slate roof, piended in places, with lead ridge. Coped stone skews with decorative scrolled skewputts. Predominantly coped granite ridges stacks with circular cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: high quality interiors with skirting boards, cornices, light switches, decorative plasterwork and panelled ceilings all intact. Oak panelled entrance hall with decorative tiled fireplace, oak stair, fine plasterwork ceiling with elaborate oxidised silver light fitting, Bromsgrove Guild. Oak panelling by Scott Morton & Co (Library). Fireplaces in library and adjacent room with carving by Louis Reid Deuchars, supplied by Allen and Sons, 1908 (See Notes); fire grate by Thomas Hadden. Scullery and bathroom furniture survives.

GARDEN ORNAMENTS, INCLUDING STATUARY, URNS, PAVING, WALLS AND RUSTIC TIMBER ANCILLARY STRUCTURE: house raised on coursed, flat coped wall to SW upper terrace reached by central flight of stone steps flanked at top by 2 carved stone urns. Lead statue, 'The Snake Charmer', of child playing panpipes within granite basin to SE of house, 2 smaller statues of children to E, all from Bromsgrove Guild (1908). Irregular polygonal paving. Vertically boarded rustic timber, square-plan ancillary structure to S of house with window openings to W.

Statement of Interest

B-Group with Lodge, Gates and Gatepiers and Walled Garden (see separate listings). Situated on the banks of the River Dee, Rhu-na-haven survives inside and out almost completely intact. "The walls were built in the manner traditional in the district, of great [granite] blocks roughly axed on the face" (Hussey p73). Indeed the use of granite by Lorimer is probably limited to Rhu-na-haven and its surrounding buildings, thus making the house quite unique. Despite the difficulties of working with granite, Lorimer's design is one of finely detailed curvilinear gables contrasting with the simple massing and continuous eaves line. The 1909 design, with service quarters to the E, shows the NW bays as a single storey block with ogee-roofed terminating bay. In 1911 the NW wing was incorporated by Lorimer into the current near-symmetrical arrangement. The interiors at Rhu-na-haven are extremely fine. The Library fireplace cartouches were modelled, cast and carved for £40, and the original plaster model still exists, thought to be one of two by Deuchars exhibited at the Scottish Society of Artists in 1912-13. The Snake Charmer cost £31.10s. Six light fittings supplied by Bromsgrove Guild cost £50, whilst others, including that for the Hall, came to £16.1s: all in oxidised silver.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17574362

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)