Description

Pre 1893, with possible later additions circa 1900. 2-storey, asymmetrical, L-plan Scottish Arts and Crafts house with Renaissnace detailing. White-painted harl with pink and yellow sandstone margins and dressings; chamfered arrises; dormerheads with broken segmental pediments, pyramidal finials; moulded string course; sandstone eaves cornice.

SE (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: 2-storey, 5-bay main block with perhaps slightly later single storey, 3-bay entrance porch and offices advanced in front of 4 bays, to left. Dormerheaded windows symmetrically disposed on main house, grouped 1-3-1, narrow recessed blank wall to left of outer left dormerhead; crowstepped, single storey, lean-to block against SW elevation, round window at ground. 3-bay symmetrical entrance block and offices with 4th flat-roofed bay to outer left. 3 bays with shaped, coped, curvilinear gables terminating in scrolled terminals; segmental-headed windows symmetrically disposed; single window in outer left bay with door at left return. Main entrance to outer right return; lugged and shouldered moulded sandstone doorcase; keystone as base for cast-iron angle lamp. Round window immediately to right of door at ground floor; window at ground outer right; moulded string course divides floors.

NW (GARDEN) ELEVATION: L-plan front with 4-bay, M-gabled jamb advanced to outer left; 3-bay main block to right and octagonal entrance tower in re-entrant angle. Windows symmetrically disposed at 1st floor of M-gable; carved figurative gargoyle (man holding book) at centre. Small window at centre of left gable; glazed door to right with stone forestair, plain cast-iron railings; biparitite window at centre of right gable, thick, panelled, shared grey sandstone mullion (perhaps later); finial blocks at apex of both gables. Bipartite window at ground; gabled dormerhead to right on right return. 2-stage, octagonal tower breaking eaves in re-entrant angle. Corniced door at centre with 4 stone steps, platt; flanking narrow windows at different levels. Single pilaster window with flanked Renaissance style block pediment at centre at centre at 2nd stage; figurative gargoyle at juction of tower and jamb; roll-moulded eaves cornice. 3-bay block to right; narrow bay immediately to right; 2 near-symmetrical bays to right, blank 1st floor at outer right bay; 1st floor windows directly under eaves. Crowstepped lean-to to outer right against gable; round window on garden elevation.

NE ELEVATION: 3 bays. Broad crowstepped gable to outer left; windows disposed off-centre at ground and 1st floor. 2 windows symmetrically disposed at ground in bays to right; triangular pedimented dormerhead at penultimate bay; paired wallhead stack immediately to right.

12-pane sash and case window. Thick red-brown slate roof with stone ridge tiles; crowstepped gables and crowstepped mutual skews; harled and coped ridge stacks; tall ashlar diamond-aligned wallhead stacks at NE and W. Cast-iron rainwater goods with decorative square and bowed rainwater heads.

INTERIOR: dark-stained panelled entrance hall with low ceilings, plain cornices. Plain, moulded sandstone chimneypieces. Stair no longer evident, still extant under ceiling, entrance now through garden tower.

STABLES: former stables to W of house, aligned N-S, now converted to fuction rooms for restaurant. Rendered with masonry details; modern windows inserted; timber hoist on ridge of outer left stable. Grey slate roof; high coped skews.

BRIDGE: small bridge carrying avenue over John's Burn; 4 block balusters of roughly hewn sandstone slabs, supporting slab coping, terminating in crudely tooled vermiculated dies echoing gatepiers.

GATEPIERS AND BOUNDARY WALL: corniced ashlar piers with vermiculated bands, capped by large acorn finial on pedestal base. Curved rubble wall with harl-pointing, semicircular coping, continues as very high wall E along Johnsburn Road.

Statement of Interest

The house seems to have been slightly extended from the 2nd edition map of 1895 and that of 1913. It may have been the addition of the porch in the early years of the 20th century that made for the apparent change in scale. The house was occupied by a Hector MacPhearson in the 1894 directories. The house now operates as a restaurant.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17807040

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

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  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)