Description

Circa 1879. 2 storey with 3 storey tower, 3 bay baronial villa. Bullfaced squared and snecked sandstone with droved dressings. Base course; dividing string courses between storeys; strip quoins; chamfered reveals; crowstepped gables.

S (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: asymmetrical; 3 storey entrance tower recessed to left; architraved doorway with advanced consoled pedimented canopy surmounted by decorative finials to left and right; recessed panelled timber door reached by 2 stone steps; carved heraldic panel to 1st floor reading ?NISI COMINUS FRUSTRA?; window to 2nd floor; crenellated parapet corbelled out on 2 tier modillions. Regular fenestration to centre bay. Slightly advanced gabled bay to right with canted bay window through 2 storeys; blind panel set in gablehead; carved stone finial to apex.

E ELEVATION: asymmetrical, 2 storey, 2 bay to left, with single storey, 3 bay wing to right. Window to right bay of ground floor; regular fenestration to left and right bays of 1st floor. Wing: advanced, gabled bipartite window to centre; window to flanking bay to left; advanced gabled bay to right with wide doorway off centre to left at ground with 3 leaf glazed boarded timber door; boarded timber door set in gablehead; long and short quoins; carved stone finial to apex.

N ELEVATION: asymmetrical; single storey wing advanced to ground obscuring rear of Villa. Boarded timber door with letterbox fanlight to outer right; flanked by window to left.

W ELEVATION: asymmetrical; 3 storey, single bay entrance tower to outer right; 5 bay, single storey wing to left. Regular fenestration to each storey of tower; window to left return of 2nd floor. Wing: 2 leaf boarded timber door to penultimate bay to right; window to bay to right. Gabled 3 bays to left with boarded timber doorway with letterbox fanlight to centre; boarded timber shutter to flanking bay to right; window to flanking bay to left.

Predominantly 2 pane and 4 pane timber sash and case windows. Grey slate roof with lead ridge; crowstepped skews with moulded skewputts. Bull faced, coped, shouldered wallhead stacks with circular cans; ridge stack to N wing; stack to E of entrance tower. Cast iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: the principal interior (1st floor bedroom, formerly the board room for the Reservoir Committee) has a fine coomb ceiling with deeply undercut cornice in a stiff waterlily and bulrush design.

Statement of Interest

Gladhouse Villa was built by the Edinburgh Corporation to house the caretaker of the neighbouring Gladhouse Reservoir (see separate listing), which was engineered by Messrs Leslie, circa 1878, to supply water to Edinburgh and the nearby towns. The heraldic panel possibly illustrates Neptune. The water/reservoir theme is continued on the interior.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17828922

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

• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)