Description

Thomas Saunders Robertson, 1898-1901, dated 1900. Single storey with 3-storey wings reducing to 2-storey on rising ground, E-plan Baronial hospital wards block. Squared, stugged and snecked red sandstone with ashlar dressings, base course, chamfered arrises. Moulded string courses dividing floors of 3-storey wings. Crowstepped gables. Chamfered heads to windows of 2nd floor.

PRINCIPAL ELEVATION: 2-stage entrance block at centre with advanced pedimented porch, decoratively panelled 2-leaf door in roll-moulded surround with plate glass fanlight and narrow lights on return, barley-sugar colonnettes at angles and overdoor panel framed with scrolled leaf and inscribed 'MIRACULA ANIMI CAELO MAIORA SUNT', scroll-adorned pediment above with carved ribbon and date 1900 over carved insignia 'TSR', and thistle finial; squat, decorative stone balustrades steps to entrance between paired cast iron lamp standards; stepped and layered corbel tables to gablehead behind, shield panel to head of middle layer; transomed windows flanking and engaged circular section angle towers framing with windows at ground and corbelled gableheads above, each bearing carved panel of heraldic shield. Single storey bays flanking, linking with 3-storey end blocks, and comprised of broad canted 6-light windows to centre with crenellated parapets flanked by paired single windows. 3-storey outer blocks mirrored, each of 4 bays with regular fenestration to ground and 1st floor of inner bays, angle turret corbelled out from 1st floor with small windows at 2nd floor and conical roof; non-aligned windows breaking eaves in gabled dormerheads to centre; 3-storey round angle towers closing elevation with windows to each floor and conical roof.

SIDE ELEVATIONS: mirrored. Each with 3-storey corner tower to outer angle with principal elevation, clasping gable with 2 windows to both ground and 1st floors and single to 2nd, gabled porch off-centre with roll-moulded round-arched opening and side lights to panelled door with fanlight; gabled bay with bipartite windows to each floor near centre; 2 paired 2-storey bays to rear with gable over outer bays and corbelled bartizan, small window and conical roof to outer angle.

REAR ELEVATION: 2-storey; symmetrical block closing central wing, door to centre with heavy ashlar bracket supporting crenellated canopy, windows flanking and canted windows to outer bays. Mirrored pattern of fenestration on return walls of principal wings flanking.

Plate glass glazing in timber sash and case windows. Graded grey slates. Ridge and gablehead stone stacks.

INTERIOR: includes hall in central joint of E approached via twin panelled stairs with quasi-hammerbeam and timber boarded ceiling; panelled shutters to tall windows; plaster roundel with decorative ventilation grille. Good plasterwork and panelling.

Statement of Interest

Part of a B group with Greystanes House, Liff House, Unit Offices and the Main Gate Lodge. Gowrie House was built to provide private patient accommodation, the earlier Greystanes House having had to accommodate all classes when funds dried up although designed for pauper accommodation.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17814185

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

• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings