Description

Late 19th century. Symmetrical 2-storey, 6-bay double villa. Snecked and stugged cream sandstone with red ashlar dressings. Rock faced base course; cill course to 1st floor; frieze; eaves course. Mullioned windows.

E (FRONT) ELEVATION: to ground floor, to 2nd and 5th bays from left, slated bows with brattishing; recessed, slightly lower outer bays, accommodating porch and stair, each with steps to round-arched, bolection moulded doorway with timber-panelled and glazed doors flanked by narrow margin lights; canted tripartite window above; large round-arched stair window on gable returns. To inner bays to ground floor and 2nd and 5th bays to 1st floor, tripartite windows; bipartite windows to inner bays to 1st floor.

W (REAR) ELEVATION: small single storey, 2-bay jerkin-headed piended wings projecting from outer bays to ground floor. Predominantly bipartite windows to each floor. Mansard dormer to roof between stacks at right.

GLAZING etc: predominantly plate glass in timber sash and case windows, stair windows and some upper sashes incorporating stained glass (see Interior). Predominantly piended slate roof with bracketed eaves. Battered, corniced stone stacks with circular cans. Some cast-iron rainwater goods with ornamental hoppers and brackets.

INTERIOR: to ground floor: S Bow (the Music Room); to windows, upper sashes contain Pre-Raphaelite style stained glass figures of musicians (circa 1898; possibly adaptations of designs made for McCulloch and Co by David Gould); fittings include corniced doorcases, timber chimneypiece flanked by glass-fronted cabinets incorporating stained glass floral panels over recessed seats. Broad frieze with stencilled maidens in stylised bowers, painted with ceramic / glass bosses, in the style of Jessie M King; strapwork style plasterwork to ceiling. N Bow; woodwork and frieze similar to S Bow, to upper sashes of windows, simpler stylised stained glass floral motifs; simpler cabinets flanking chimneypiece. To adjoining rooms to ground floor, some stained glass incorporating Germanic style portrait head roundels. To South Stair: stylised woodwork and plasterwork swag frieze; large round-arched stair window with stained glass (designed by Harrington Mann, circa 1898) depicting Harvest scene with classical maidens carrying fruit with inscription above; adjacent window with painted glass oval of a Continental picturesque street-scene. To North Stair; round-arched stair window with stained glass composition of a galleon (possibly designed by E A Taylor). Other, more restrained Glasgow-style details continued in upstairs bedrooms.

WALLS AND GATEPIERS: low, coped ashlar garden wall to Langside Drive, rising in stylised buttresses to 2 pairs of corniced gatepiers (one pier renewed); walls enclosing rear garden. Early 20th century timber framed garage to N side of house.

Statement of Interest

Listed for its exceptional, near intact Glasgow Style interior. Also as a good example of late 19th century Arts and Crafts architecture and for its connection with some of the leading craftsmen of the Glasgow Style.

Nos. 52 and 54 Langside Drive were conceived as a double villa. However, from circa 1897 onwards they were occupied as one house, 'Hughenden', by Hugh McCulloch, a prominent Glasgow Style craftsman. His firm, McCulloch and Co, worked for Wylie and Lochhead executing decorative and stained glass commissions designed by E A Taylor and John Ednie among others. McCulloch did all the stained glass and most of the paintwork for Wylie and Lochhead at the 1901 Glasgow Exhibition, and later worked for Charles Rennie Mackintosh, executing all he glass for the Room De Luxe in Miss Cranston's Willow Tearooms, and at Hill House, Helensburgh. McCulloch himself commissioned the interior decoration of his house at 52-54 Langside Drive, circa 1902. Donnelly attributes the interior design of the house to E A Taylor for Wylie and Lochhead; however, there is no known documentary evidence to confirm this, and it is possible that work could be by John Ednie; both designers were working for Wylie and Lochhead circa 1902-4, and the firm maintained a 'house style'. However, Taylor's interior work at Lord Weir's House, No 68 Glencairn Drive, Pollockshields (illustrated by Larner (Fig 92), also see The Studio, Vol. 33, (1904), pp215-223), is very similar to work at 52-54 Langside Drive, particularly the Music Room fireplace scheme with flanking cupboards and decorative frieze above. These friezes echo the decorative work of Jessie King, whom Taylor married in 1908. Muthesius also illustrates comparable interior schemes by Taylor.

In the latter half of the 20th century, 52-54 Langside Drive was linked with 56 Langside Drive (see separate Listing) to form a residential home. In 2003 the linking sections were removed, and the two buildings were returned to individual residential use.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17569114

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

• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair