Description

Pirie and Clyne, 1885. 2-storey and attic, 2-bay, rectangular-plan, semi-detached villa with Egytpo-Greek detailing. Rough-faced coursed grey granite, finely finished to margins. Projecting cills to ground floor; dividing band course; first floor cill and lintel course; eaves blocking course.

NE (FOUNTAINHALL ROAD) ELEVATION: asymmetrical; window to right of ground floor; 3-light canted window to flanking bay to right, forming balcony to 1st floor above, pilastered mullions. Slightly recessed planes flanking 1st floor windows; window to right of 1st floor, squat pilasters flanking below lintel, deep finely finished entablature breaking eaves above, navel-like paterae frieze surmounted by shallow scrolled pediment; tripartite window to left of 1st floor, pilastered mullions to central pane, squat pilasters flanking outer panes below lintel, deep finely finished entablature breaking eaves above, navel paterae frieze surmounted by pediment with stylised acroteria, anthemion motif to apex.

NW ELEVATION: obscured by adjoining building.

SW ELEVATION: broad glazed opening to ground floor, window centred to 1st floor above.

SE (HAMILTON PLACE) ELEVATION: symmetrical; gabled; doorway to centre of ground floor, corniced with consoles, surmounted by shallow scrolled details, deep set modern door; window with panelled apron to centre of 1st floor above; shallow tripartite window centred in gablehead, with deep set glazing; twin stacks flanking gablehead, stylised anthemion to apex.

Predominantly modern 2-pane timber-framed glazing. Grey slate roof with lead ridge. Coped stone skews with blocked skewputts. Coped granite wallhead and gablehead stacks with octagonal and circular cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: not seen 2000.

BOUNDARY WALLS: low granite ashlar wall to E; rubble walls to W with brick coping.

Statement of Interest

A-Group with 63, 79, 62, 64-66, 68-70, 72, 74-76, 78-80, 82-84, 86-88, 90-92, 94-96 and 98 Hamilton Place and Whitehill Bowling Green Wall (see separate listings). 87 Fountainhall Road marks the W end of Hamilton Place, J B Pirie (1851-1892) and Arthur Clyne's (1853-1924) finest terrace. 87 Fountainhall Road does not follow the double villa formula of the majority of Pirie and Clyne's houses in Hamilton Place, however the massing, masonry techniques and decorative motifs cleverly tie it in with the street along which it looks. The simple ground floor contrasts with the elaborate 1st floor. Recessed planes flanking the windows direct the eye to the bold ornamentation. The navel-like paterae appear in the majority of the designs by the partnership. The paterae are probably a development of the sunflower (a favourite motif of the Aesthetic Movement) or daffodil. A variation of the patera is also a favourite motif of Alexander Thomson, who appears to have been a strong influence on Pirie in particular. Another motif employed by both Thomson and Pirie and Clyne is the squat column, flanking the windows at 1st floor of 87 Fountainhall Road, and also at the side entrance of St. Vincent Street Church, Glasgow (1857-8) by Thomson (see separate listing). Despite the similarities with the work of Thomson, Pirie and Clyne's designs are also highly individual. Their buildings combine High Victorian gothic, Greek, Scots Baronial, Aesthetic Movement and even proto-Art Nouveau motifs.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17778974

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

• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)