Description

Basil Spence and Perry Duncan, 1937-9. Originally planned house combining modern streamline design with some traditional detailing. Curved entrance front with 5 central bays, 1 wide bay to east, west bay projected to bold bow on west elevation; garden front with 2 deep, splayed 3-bay wings flanking swimming pool; lower service wing to east. All 2 storeys. Ashlar base course and dressings, harled walls, very shallow pitched copper roof behind a parapet. Porch supported on tall fluted wooden columns, door in moulded architrave with oculus above. Curved bay between wings to garden front filled with full-height 5-light stair/hall window;

All windows metal framed casements, taller at ground and those opening onto 1st floor cantilevered balconies, windows closely spaced at ground in west bow, some porthole windows.

Long service range to east.

Interior: central oval stair hall with boldly sweeping cantilevered stair, finely looped wrought-iron balustrade and mahogany handrail; plaster frieze of shells linked with ropes. Study with curved ends decorated in sophisticated Art Deco style.

Drawing room simple neo-Georgian manner.

Dining room with buffet recess and coved cornice. Original details survive in 1st floor bedrooms eg mirrored surrounds to chimneypieces, and in nursery.

Swimming pool: set between wings on South front. Sea lion fountain from Compton Pottery Guildford.

Statement of Interest

Built for John Colville (of the Steel family). Possibly the largest private house to be built in Scotland in the 1930s. A model of the house survives at Glasgow College of Art.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17568258

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

• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)