Edinburgh Thistle Clubhouse, 29 Braid Hills Approach, Edinburgh, Morningside, Edinburgh

Description

Former clubhouse (left of gateway) built 1897 and designed by the City Architects Department, probably James A Williamson, Deputy City Architect, under Robert Morham, City Architect. It is a two-storey, three-bay, rectangular plan symmetrical Arts and Crafts former entrance lodge and golfers' shelter incorporating houses for park officer and greenkeeper to left and right of main public areas. It is situated on rising ground at the east end of the Braid Hills golf course with panoramic view over the city of Edinburgh.

Pebble-dashed with polished red ashlar sandstone dressings and details, battered base course and cill course. The roof has a deep overhang and exposed rafter ends, swept over open veranda supported by timber posts. There are mock-castellated curved towers to each side.

Steps with curved approach walls to entrance through veranda. Two timber and glazed two-leaf doors and timber windows the full width of veranda. Timber entrance doors to houses (originally for golf professional and greenkeeper) on side elevations with serpentine, roll-moulded architraves. Sash and case windows with small pane glazing in upper sash at ground floor and small pane glazing in casement windows at first floor. Red-tiled roof, chimneystacks slightly tapered at apex with red clay cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods with decorative hoppers.

Interior includes panelled timber doors and plain plaster cornices. There is a timber chimneypiece and timber-boarded dado to the central golfers' room. Curved press doors in upper floor rooms of houses and cast-iron chimneypieces (seen in 2012).

Thistle Clubhouse (right of gateway) opened 13 July 1933 and designed by the City Architects Department, Alexander Garden Forgie as Deputy City Architect, assisted by Tom Smith, under Ebenezer MacRae, City Architect. It is a two-storey, three-bay, rectangular plan Arts and Crafts clubhouse situated on sloping ground designed to match the style and materials of the 1897 clubhouse. It is constructed in pebble-dashed brick with red ashlar sandstone dressings and details and a deep red, squared rubble sandstone base course. There is a starters' box at ground floor to right of entrance.

Front elevation with steps to partly enclosed lobby area, balcony above with wrought-iron balusters between piers rising from ground level. Later addition of exterior flights of steps on east elevation. Entrance through lobby with two-leaf timber and glazed doors, and windows to right and left. The swept roof has a canted bay to the south with a view over city.

The windows have a 12-pane glazing pattern in timber sash and cash frames and a 15-pane glazing pattern in the lobby windows, some are built of non-traditional materials. The interior, seen in 2012, has some timber lined rooms and panelled doors.

Statement of Interest

These buildings form an unusual group at the east end of the Braid Hills course. The exteriors of both are little altered and although they were built 30 years apart, an attempt has been made to link them stylistically. The earlier pavilion has been attributed to J A Williamson (who became Depute City Architect in 1898) as the City Architect, Robert Morham, relied heavily on assistants within the department in his later years as City Architect. We know that Williamson was responsible for the design of Braid Hills pond in 1902 and it seems likely he designed the forward-looking Arts and Crafts style shelter. He designed the clubhouse at Portobello Golf Club using the same vocabulary some years later. The use of the Arts and Crafts style in the design of the first clubhouse is relatively early and indicates an architect aware of contemporary trends. The combination of Scottish vernacular' the round towers for example - and Arts and Crafts details, very unusual in a modest building, bears some resemblance to contemporary work such as that of Sir Robert Lorimer.

As regards the second clubhouse, the Edinburgh City Architect's Department produced a wide variety of work when the need arose ranging from a fine Art Deco style, for example at Portobello Outdoor Baths, to sensitive conservation work in the Old Town, would seem to have deliberately chosen to design the new clubhouse in the Arts and Crafts style to relate it to the older clubhouse.

The building was planned with lounge and male and female lockers and toilets on the ground floor, and tea room/restaurant and kitchen on the upper floor, the former accessing the balcony.

The two buildings at the Braids are interesting historically as they are markers in the historical development of the course. The restriction of golf on Bruntsfield Links led to the City to acquire the Braids course in 1886 from the Cluny Estate Trustees for £11,000. An 18-hole course was opened to the public in 1889. A short second course to the south was added in 1897 at which time shelters and other buildings were erected. Such was the popularity of the course that in 1906 a further area of ground to the east towards Liberton was added and a second 18-hole course opened. By the early 1930s the old 'golf house' was considered to be inadequate and the larger clubhouse was added to the south.

Although the Braid Hills Course is and always was a municipal course, various clubs settled there after its opening, the first being Edinburgh Thistle Golf Club, founded in 1870. The club had been located at Leith Links and later Musselburgh before moving to the Braids. Currently the club premises are on the upper floor of the1930s building while the ground floor is the Starter's Box. Three other clubs have been located at the Braids since their inception in the late 19th century: Harrison Golf Club (1889), Braids United Golf Club (1897), and Edinburgh Western Golf Club (1899).

Scotland is intrinsically linked with the sport of golf and it was the birthplace of the modern game of golf played over 18 holes. So popular was golf in medieval Scotland that it was a dangerous distraction from maintaining military skills in archery and James II prohibited the playing of 'gowf' and football in 1457.

The 'Articles and Laws in Playing Golf', a set of rules whose principles still underpin the game's current regulations, were penned in 1744 by the Company of Gentlemen Golfers (now The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers). Improved transport links and increased leisure time as well as a rise in the middle classes from the mid-19^th century onwards increased the popularity of the sport with another peak taking place in the early 1900s.

The sociable aspect of the game encouraged the building of distinctive clubhouses with bar and restaurant facilities. Purpose-built clubhouses date from the mid-19^th century onwards. Previously clubs had used in villas or rooms in an inn near to the course. Earlier clubhouses were typically enlarged in stages as the popularity of the game increased throughout the 19^th and 20^th century. The sport has grown further in popularity in recent years, especially overseas in places such as USA and Canada.

In 2013, the governing body for amateur golf in Scotland, the Scottish Golf Union (SGU), reported around 550 golf courses in Scotland, representing a total membership of approximately 236,000 golf club members. Interestingly, 7 of the 14 venues where the Open Championship is held are in Scotland. Scotland has produced a number of famous golf sporting personalities - historically, Old Tom Morris (1821-1908) and James Braid (1870-1950) were the pioneers of their time.

Listed as part of the sporting buildings thematic study (2012-13).

Statutory address revised in 2020. Previously listed as 'Former Clubhouse and Edinburgh Thistle Clubhouse, 27 Braid Hills Approach, Edinburgh'.

External Links

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