Acharra, 3 Spylaw Avenue, Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Edinburgh

Description

Sir Robert Lorimer, dated 1897; additions by John Angus, builder, 1906. two-storey, three-bay, rectangular-plan Arts and Crafts villa with 1906 northeast wing at right-angles to main house. Piend-roofed sections to outer bays of north and south elevations; swept-roof bays to centre with dormers in attic. Later wing with small oval windows and pend through to garage. Cream painted harling with red sandstone cills and other dressings; red sandstone ashlar to central section around front door. Some parts of principal elevations jettied out at first floor.

NORTH (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: swept-roof section to centre: timber panelled door in roll-moulded architrave with carved flower decoration to sides; cornice above carved with rose motifs. Leaded stained glass tripartite window to left of door with slightly raised margins. Two flat-roofed dormers above. Bay to right with canted corner at ground, corbelled to square and jettied out at first floor; tripartite window at first floor. Bay to left with tall staircase window. 1906 wing to outer left; depressed-arch pend to centre with stone staircase rising from inside pend; small blind oval windows around pend with sandstone tabs; tablet above arch.

WEST (SIDE) ELEVATION: irregularly fenestrated with gablet to centre. Partially jettied out at first floor. Sandstone sundial clasping southwest corner at first floor, inscribed TAK TENT O' TIME ERE TIME BE TINT, HM, 1897.

SOUTH (PRINCIPAL/GARDEN) ELEVATION: swept roof over central verandah (now glazed in); canted bay window to rear of verandah; four-light dormer to roof. Bay to left jettied out at first floor; five-light window at ground; four-light window above. Bay to right with canted corner to outer right, corbelled to square at first floor; no window at ground (see Notes); four-light window at first floor; very small gabled dormer to attic.

EAST ELEVATION: original house, three bays to left: recessed centre; narrow piend-roofed section to left, jettied out at first floor with windows at both floors; asymmetrical gable to right with stack to one side, corbelled out at first floor. Irregularly fenestrated addition to right.

INTERIOR: tiled lobby with half-glazed timber panelled door. Alcove off hall with (possibly later) Art-Nouveau style timber screen in the form of a broken circle; tripartite stained glass window depicting ships and shells; inscription in central panel, I COMMIT ALL TO GOD. Very fine timber staircase with many carved panels depicting flowers, fruit and grapes; original brass rod handrail. Coved ceiling above staircase with decorative plasterwork; date 1897, to centre; vine trees inhabited by birds to sides. Narrow timber staircase from upstairs landing to attic. Drawing room alcove with window seat and decorative plasterwork above, 1897 with entwined foliage; fireplace modern, but similar to that in dining room. Two-leaf sliding doors between drawing room and dining room. Timber chimneypiece with original brass bell-pull in dining room; flanking cupboards; roll-moulded red sandstone inset; Art Nouveau bronze(?) grate, stone fender. Study with small stained-glass panel in window. Painted timber chimney piece with brass bell-pull; flanking cupboards and shelves. Recessed alcove off upstairs landing with stained glass window (birds flying past a tree). Main bedroom fireplace with slightly Art-Nouveau grate, stone inset, chimney piece with arched centre and quadrant shelves up sides. Second bedroom fireplace with cast-iron grate and timber chimneypiece with shelves up sides. Third bedroom fireplace also with shelves up sides, and small glazed display cupboard above (centre boarded up). Bedroom to centre with stained glass window, similar to that on landing. Plain cornices and timber panelled interior doors with Lorimer handles throughout.

BOUNDARY WALL AND GATEPIERS: coped random rubble boundary walls with ashlar gatepiers.

GARAGE: circa 1925 (replacing earlier structure). Timber boarded door; plain pilasters clasping corners; small segmental pediment; window to side. Rendered with felt roof.

Statement of Interest

B-Group with numbers 21, 23, 40 and 42 Pentland Avenue, and 21 Gillespie Road (21 Gillespie Road is in Baberton Ward). Despite the additional wing, and the glazed in verandah, this house is a good example of the smaller cottages that Lorimer built in Colinton, and is most similar to Almora, 49 Spylaw Bank Road (which Lorimer built in the same year), both in elevational detail and plan. Like the other houses that Lorimer built in Colinton, this house is sited and planned so that the principal rooms face South and overlook the main part of the garden, while the less important rooms face East and North. The rooms used by the servants are arranged so that they do not overlook the main garden, and this is most apparent in the kitchen, which despite being in the south part of the house, has its windows to the East. This has the added advantage of keeping the kitchen shaded from the midday sun. The decorative features inside the house are particularly good, especially the staircase, which is one of the best in Colinton. The stained glass in the hall is also excellent. The Art-Nouveau details are interesting because they do not appear in any of Lorimer's other work in Colinton, and were presumably a special request of Major Mears, for whom the house was built. Major Mears' initials, HJM are inscribed on the sundial. Major Meares was the father of Cecil Henry Meares, British military officer, linguist and Antarctic explorer, who was the chief dog handler and interpreter on the Terra Nova Expedition, Robert Falcon Scott's last expedition to the South Pole (1910–13).

It is uncertain whether the Art-Nouveau style screen-arch in the hall is original. The present owner (2003) thinks not, and it is certainly unlike anything found in any of the other Lorimer houses in Colinton, as well having a slightly flimsy appearance. On the other hand, this part of the hall was obviously originally intended as a sitting area, and the plan of the house published in "The British Home of Today" does show that it was screened off. In order not to hide the stained glass window, any screen in this situation must act more as a frame than a solid partition, and it therefore seems likely that this screen-arch is original. This house and its neighbours, Westfield, 40 Pentland Avenue and Binley, 42 Pentland Avenue, were built at the same time on a group contract by the builder Nathaniel Grieves. The house was originally built with a small service courtyard to the northeast with a screen wall and gates to the garden, and when the 1906 wing was built, these were incorporated into its fabric.

Minor update to the listed building record 2024.

External Links

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