Description

Alexander Thomson, 1868. 2-storey, 5-bay, irregular-plan Greek Revival villa. Red ashlar sandstone. 2 temple-fronted gable ends, barge-boarded overhanging eaves with exposed rafters, 3-stage tower with broad pyramidal roof. Base course. Tall, rectangular windows.

E (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: 4-bay. Broad advanced, gabled bay to outer right; 3 windows to ground, string course between floors, 5-light window to 1st floor with pilastered stone mullions, single windows to left return. Slightly advanced gabled bay to right of centre: 2 windows to ground, 3-light window to 1st floor with pilastered stone mullions. 3-stage, square-plan tower to left of centre: hoodmoulded window to ground; string course between ground and 2nd stage, narrow window to 2nd stage, battered to narrow 3rd stage, narrow 3-light windows with pilastered stone mullions, pyramidal roof. Recessed upper storey to left of tower, single storey porch to ground with stone steps to open porch entrance, flanked by piers with pilasters emerging at top decorated with key pattern; entablature over with key patterned frieze continued from S elevation.

N (REAR) ELEVATION: irregular fenestration, double gable bay to right.

W (SIDE) ELEVATION: irregular fenestration.

S (SIDE) ELEVATION: regular fenestration to central bay. Advanced, gabled bay to left with slightly advanced 3-light window to ground, stone pilastered mullions, terminating in full entablature with paterae to frieze, 5-light window above. Single storey, glazed porch to right of centre with pilastered 3-light window to centre; entrance to right return, full entablature, gadrooned cornice, Greek key pattern to frieze; blocked parapet with carved acanthus to outer right corner.

Plate glass sash and case windows with glass set into stone in towerhead windows. Grey slates, lead flashing. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: interior lost and rebuilt in 1986 following fire damage and divided into six 1- or 2-bedroom apartments, mosaic floor to vestibule with key-patterned border to porch.

GATEPIERS: pair of square-plan concrete piers; base, inscribed 'ARRANVIEW' to column, Greek frieze pattern, low pyramidal caps,

Statement of Interest

Believed to have been built to a Thomson design but without his supervision though the villa shows typical Thomson composite massing of rectangular forms. Arranview is similar to Thomson's Tor House, Rothesay, 1856. Built for Gavin Black Motherwell a solicitor and Airdrie town councillor. The villa was taken over by the Council in 1950 and run as a childrens' home until the 1970s from which point it was vacant until gutted by fire in 1986. The building was restored and converted into six, 1- or 2-bedroom flats in 1987, including the tower flat which was has a bedroom at the top of the tower. The restoration work revealed that wooden floor boards were laid upon rough sandstone floors on both the ground and first floor.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17825427

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

• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)