Shandon House, Shore Road, Shandon, Rhu, Argyll and Bute

Description

Charles Wilson, 1849. 2-storey with attic, asymmetrical, rambling-plan, Baronial house with Jacobethan details. Coarse

cement render with ashlar dressings and margins. Base course.

Crowstepped gables.

S ELEVATION: 5 asymmetrically disposed bays. 3-bay entrance block advanced off-centre to left. Tall, 3-stage tower at centre, basket-arched door with deeply moulded surround and shallow banded rustication with nailhead motif, robust keystone also with nailhead decoration; strapwork above door with owl at centre. 2 narrow windows at 2nd stage, symmetrically disposed with plaque at centre, window at centre of 3rd stage. Crenellated bay to right with slender bartizan, single window symmetrically disposed at ground and 1st floor; tripartite window at attic. Console cornice, crenellated parapet. Lower bay to left with single window at ground and 1st floor, jettied attic floor with gabletted dormer. Gabled bay to outer left, window at ground, canted oriel on corbelled base at 1st floor, blocking course.

Lower block to right of entrance bays tripartite projecting window at centre ground; stone mullions and transoms, decorative blocking course with strapwork pediment, datestone 1800 at centre. Gabled dormerheads at 1st floor, plaque in gableheads, finials. Stugged, coursed sandstone, 3-stage corner tower to outer right, small rectangular windows (obscured by ivy).

E ELEVATION: asymmetrical. Tall, crenellated tower block off-centre to left; full-height canted bay window (ground to 1st floor), window to right and left at ground, window at centre of 3rd stage. Crenellated parapet on deeply- moulded corbels, crenellated bartizans at corners, gable with apex stack rises at centre behind parapet. Lower 2-bay block to right, windows symmetrcially disposed; gabled strapwork dormerheads; stugged sandstone, square-plan bartizan to outer right, gabled. Lower slender bay to left of tower bay, large window, stone mullion and transom, cusped, cross-shaped upper lights; single window at 1st floor. Gabled outer left bay, full- height bow window with

dividing cornice and saw-tooth blocking course; half-conical ashlar roof. Rope-moulded hoodmould over upper window culminating in knotted label stops, blank raised plaque to right. Apex stack. Square-plan tower roof rises behind gable with serpent finial on weather-vane.

W ELEVATION: advanced gabled bay to outer right, canted window at ground, single window at 1st floor, slender pepperpot turrets, blind narrow windows. Lower narrow gabled bay recessed to left, stone transomed and mullioned window, cross-shaped upper lights. Taller, crenellated bay to left, single window at ground, canted oriel at 1st floor, tripartite window at attic. Lower 2-bay block to right, windows at higher level in penultimate bay; single window at ground, 2 windows at 1st floor; roofless bartizan.

N ELEVATION: roughly U-plan rear elevation; advanced gables to outer left and right, that to right broader and cement-rendered; wall built between 2 blocks obscuring ground floor of rear elevation. Tower recessed to outer left, crenellated bartizans; windows on right side of tower (10-lying-pane glazing at 2nd floor). Block to right, blocked tripartite stair window directly below fire escape.

Plate glass sash and case windows, many blocked with plywood. Grey slate roof; grey slate fish-scale tiles with cast-rion finials for

turrets and bartizans. Linked, diamond-set ridge stacks on pedestal bases; tall, corniced apex stacks.

INTERIOR: vestibule now divided to the right by partition but

originally opening into large room, large Tudor ashlar fireplace set

into arched recess, compartmentalised ribbed ceiling, wreath and ribbon interlaced cornice. Hall passage runs entire width of house, rope-moulding cornice punctuated by nailhead motif; arched ribbed ceiling, ribs carried on owl corbels. Drawing room to left at ground, compartmentalised ceiling of raised quatrefoil decoration, crocketted plasterwork rosette, Corinthian column screen at end near hall. Drawing room to right, bow-ended, compartmentalised ceiling, decorative crocketted plasterwork; 4-panelled doors. basket-arched arcade of

3 arches opening onto grand double stair, clustered columns, vegetal capitals, nailhead cornice; balusters of wooden stair removed, newel posts with ball finials survive; similar arcade at upper landing. Room to right at 1st floor, coved, ribbed ceiling; ribs carried on lion with saltire, figurative corbels. All dados and fireplaces removed. Upper rooms all plain; modern cast-iron stair in outer tower.

BRIDGE: bridge carrying avenue over small burn. Coursed sandstone with ashlar base course and saddleback coping. Pierced trefoil motif with red sandstone surround.

Statement of Interest

The house was designed by Charles Wilson for William Jamieson. Wilson was one of the most fashionable architects in the Glasgow area in the 1840s. The house was used as a reform school and there are numerous unsympathetic prefabricated buildings to the E and along the avenue to the SE. The former stables block and offices were also converted for school use. It is now the property of the Ministry of Defence and as the house has not been inhabited for some time it appears neglected with boarded windows, ivy growth and overgrown grounds. There are some structural cracks on the building.

External Links

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.