Description

Pirie and Clyne, circa 1886. 2-storey and attic, 4-bay double villa with Egypto-Greek detailing. Rough-faced pink granite with predominantly grey granite dressings, finely finished to margins. Dark grey granite base course; ground floor cill course; pilastered panelled timber doors with letterbox fanlights; finely finished dividing band course and ground floor cill course; 1st floor cill course and band course at impost level; parapet between gables of principal elevation.

SE (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: symmetrical; 4-bay, comprising 2 2-bay mirrored, semi-detached villas. Doorways to centre bays of ground floor, flanked by squat rough-faced pilasters below lintels; deep-set doors flanked by glazed panels, pair of doors at Nos 94 and 94A; single gableted windows breaking parapet to 1st floor above, deep entablatures flanked by squat pilasters, blind tablets to centre, blind cartouches set in gablets. 3-light bowed windows to ground floor of flanking bays to outer left and right forming balcony at 1st floor; tripartite window to 1st floor above, corniced with consoles, surmounted by pair of scrolls, pilastered mullions. Pedimented attic floors above, grey granite finials breaking pitch and scrolled ends; bull's-eye windows to centre, flanked by navel paterae, stylised sunflower paterae set in gableheads; stone finial.

NE ELEVATION: gabled; 2-storey addition to outer right.

NW ELEVATION: not seen 2000.

SW ELEVATION: gabled.

Predominantly 2-pane timber sash and case windows. Corniced gablehead and ridge stacks with circular cans. Grey slate roof with lead ridge. Stone skews. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIORS: not seen 2000.

GATEPIERS AND BOUNDARY WALLS: low rough-faced pink granite Aberdeen bond walls to S with grey granite snecking and coping; gatepiers to left and right, shared with Nos 90-92 and No 98 Hamilton Place (see separate listings), grey granite shaft swept up from plinth, rough-faced pink granite neck surmounted by scrolled cap, rubble dividing walls to E and W.

Statement of Interest

A-Group with 63, 79, 62, 64-66, 68-70, 72, 74-76, 78-80, 82-84, 86-88, 90-92 and 98 Hamilton Place, Whitehill Bowling Green Wall and 87 Fountainhall Road (see separate listings). 94 and 96 Hamilton Place are part of J B Pirie (1851-1892) and Arthur Clyne's (1853-1924) finest terrace. The majority of Pirie and Clyne's houses on Hamilton Place follow the same formula: symmetrical double villas of mirrored plan, 2 gables to the attic, with a parapet running between. Although the houses follow the same composition, each pair is slightly different from the next, unified by the massing, masonry techniques and variations of the same decorative motifs. From the plans it would appear that the houses were designed in outline first, then details were added later. The bull's-eye openings in the gables of 94-96 Hamilton Place tie in with the nautical wave-like motifs frequently used in Pirie's architecture, and may be suggestive of a port-hole (Pirie's father was a sea-captain). The doorway flanked by squat pilasters are typical of Pirie and Clyne's domestic designs, seen specifically at Argyll Crescent and Argyll Place (see separate listings). Similarly squat columns are used by Alexander Thomson at the side entrance to St. Vincent Street Church, Glasgow, of 1857-8 (see separate listing). Of note also are the bowed windows, which were unusual at that time as canted bays were much cheaper (and is employed at some of the houses, perhaps for this reason). The bows are more than a semi-circle, another feature used by Alexander Thomson, which Pirie and Clyne may have seen at "Croyland" 202 Ayr Road Newton Mearns (1875) or at Holmwood, Cathcart (1857-8) (see separate listings), which was also illustrated in Blackie's Villa and Cottage Architecture. Pirie and Clyne's designs are highly individual. Their buildings combine High Victorian gothic, Greek, Scots Baronial, Aesthetic Movement and even proto-Art Nouveau motifs.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17576570

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 Care and Repair
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  For the Record