Description

Robert Alexander Bryden, 1886. 2 storey irregular-plan Tudor-Gothic style villa occupying prominent position at centre of village. Squared and snecked sandstone ashlar with ashlar dressings. Bull-faced rubble base course; moulded string course; dentilled timber eaves. Advanced entrance bay to N with slightly splayed pyramidal-capped tower flanked by single 10 pane sash and case windows at ground level; 5 steps rising to timber double door; round-arched doorway with prominent keystone and moulded cornice; carved foliate name plaque above string course; bipartite round-arched window with round- arched hood mouldings; flanking band course; timber bracketed eaves and moulded blocking course. Lower pitched roof returns to slightly advanced bardgeboarded gable ends at E and W elevations. Canted bay to E elevation with tripartite multi-pane sash and case windows and slated roof; single sash and case window above with round-arched hood moulding and plaque to centre. Tripartite window to left with wide mullions and linked round-arched hood mouldings. 2 small single light windows to right. S elevation: Slate roofed, single storey rear vestibule in SE re-entrant angle. Breaking eaves bipartite window; hipped and slated dormer pediment; terracotta cresting. Advanced bay to left; tripartite sash and case windows; bipartite window breaking eaves of hipped roof. Single storey outbuildings to W elevation.

INTERIOR: some etched glass remaining in windows and doors.

Piended roofs; grey Scottish slate; terracotta ridge cresting; ornamental clay cans; cast iron finials; cast-iron rainwater goods.

Statement of Interest

Number 17 'Alan Dick Home', occupies a prominent site in the centre of the village. It forms half of a stylistic pairing with Number 14 'Overtoun' at the other end of Hope Avenue. Retaining its original windows, number 17 also provides a good representation of the pattern and plan form evident in a majority of the villas on the site.

This purpose built village was founded by philanthropist William Quarrier in 1877 to accommodate orphaned and destitute children. He had operated orphanages in Glasgow since the early 1870s and was opposed to the institutional nature of the city poorhouses. 50 or so 'cottage homes' were built between 1877 and 1910 on the 10 acre site of Nittingshill Farm, bought at auction for £3560. Each employed a housemother who would look after groups of children in more familial and healthier environment than that of Glasgow's East End. The village also had its own school, church, post office, dairy, poultry farm, fire station, and workshops where the children were trained to a trade. Robert Alexander Bryden was responsible for designing all the buildings on the site in association with Andrew Robertson, with each villa built to an individual specification. The Free Revivalist style, making use of Baronial, Gothic and Tudor influences, is thought to have been inspired by the work of W E Nesfield and Richard Norman Shaw who pioneered the Garden Village movement in England.

The village as a whole is significant historically in terms of education and development of children in care, and remains generally well preserved with only a few of the buildings having been altered or extended. The historic core of the village has held Conservation Area status since 1985.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77779210

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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  Old House Handbook 2 Books Bundle Collection (Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair,Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability)
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  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
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  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
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  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy