The White House, 15 Upper Colquhoun Street, Helensburgh, Helensburgh, Argyll and Bute

Description

M H Baillie Scott, 1899. 2-storey, asymmetrical, L-plan Arts and Crafts/Voyseyesque villa. Harled and painted white, cream sandstone ashlar dressings. Ashlar mullioned windows; overhanging eaves.

N (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: gabled entrance bay advanced to outer left, recessed bay to centre, wide 2-storey and attic bay off-centre rights, single storey services wing projecting to outer right. Gabled bay to left; doorway set in narrow semi-circular arched recess to right, single ashlar slab as canopy held by wrought-iron bracket above. Boarded door with red tiled porch, tripartite half-glazed vestibule door with stained glass panels. Small bipartite window to left. Window to centre at 1st floor (mullions removed). Recessed bay to centre; lean-to single storey projection in recess with swept red tile roof, multi-partite window below eaves. 4-light window at 1st floor above. Broad advanced bay to right with 2 multi-partite windows at ground, 3 windows at 1st floor, tripartite to centre and right, single window to left. Tripartite attic window above. Return to left; bipartite window at ground, tripartite window to right at 1st floor, bipartite window to left. Single storey services wing to outer right, see below.

E (SINCLAIR STREET) ELEVATION: gabled bay to outer left with inglenook bay at ground of advanced chimney wall flanked by small bipartite windows, stack breaking gable at apex. Bipartite window to left at 1st floor. Bipartite window to right at ground, single storey lean-to projection to outer right with small window to E and S elevations. Window to 1st floor above.

S (GARDEN) ELEVATION: 2-storey and attic, lop-sided 3-bay gable off-centre left, recessed bay to outer left, 2 bays to right. Gabled bay; small bipartite window to centre and right. Gabled bay; small bipartite window to centre and right at ground, semi-octagonal canted mullioned and transomed window (1-2-2-2-1), wrapped around left angle; bipartite window to centre at 1st floor, small bipartite to right, multi-partite to left. Attic window to centre above. Multi-partite mullioned and transomed window to right at ground with multi-partite window above. Canted mullioned and transomed window to outer right (2-3-2), multi-partite window above. Recessed bay to outer left with tripartite doorway, boarded 2-leaf doors with small windows flanking and simple timber porch. Multi-partite window above to 1st floor.

W (ELEVATION): gabled, multi-partite window to right at ground. Flat-roofed, 2-storey canted bay to left with window below eaves at 1st floor (lower storey obscured by wall).

SERVICES WING AND GARAGE: E elevation; boarded door to left, later lean-to projection to outer right. N elevation; gabled, bipartite window to centre. Wall adjoining to right (obscuring E elevation); garage abutting to N, battered walls, 2-leaf boarded doors, piended red Mostly lead-pane glazing to casement windows (plate glass to lower panes to S elevation); Art Nouveau stained glass windows see below. Red tiled roof; flat-roofed dormer to S with timber casement windows; substantial harled coped stacks, slightly battered; original rainwater goods with Art Nouveau embossed decoration to hopper heads (date on head to S). INTERIOR: finely detiled with many original fixtures and fittings including door furniture and chimneypieces; good quality timber work to wainscot, doors, inglenook benches; fine display of stained glass to windows and internal partitions. Vestibule/hall; wainscot, timber cornice, barrel vaulted ceiling. Living/hall; (originally full-height now unfortunately divided), half-glazed, tripartite door from vestibule/hall similar to vestibule door, with lead-pane, frosted glass panels with stained glass decoration; wainscot; red brick semi-circular arched chimneypiece set in brick wall, embossed copper chimney-hood; inglenook benches flanking with stained glass partition behind bench to left screening stair; stained glass decoration see below, timber-beamed ceiling. Drawing room; wainscot, inglenook (ashlar chimneypiece with small windows flanking) set in low-sprung arched recess, similar archway to small len-suite with door to vestibule/hall timber-beamed ceiling. Dining room; wainscot; brick chimneyupiece with copper hood to inglenook, timber benches flanking; stained-glass decoration see below, timber-beamed ceiling and frieze.

Stained glass: designed by Baillie Scott; living/hall; clear glass panels to stair screen and to bipartite window to S.

Dining room; clear glass inset with curvilinear foliate and stylised floreate panels to bipartite window and fixed upper panes to semi-octagonal canted window, also to partition dividing dining room from (former) smoking room (now den).

Stained glass panel to vestibule door with bust of 'Imperor Caesar Dimus Pius Felix Augustus', circa 1900, possibly Norman MacDougal.

BOUNDARY WALL: red sandstone rubble wall with semi-circular coping, square gatepiers.

timber-beamed ceiling and frieze.

tiled roof.

Statement of Interest

Now divided vertically into 2 residences, unfortunate alterations to the living/hall, reducing it to a singley storey room with a bedroom at 1st floor above, were made prior to 1960 )originally the walls had stencil Art Nouveau decoration). The White House was built for H S Paul and is one of only two houses designed by Baillie Scott in Scotland (the other is Sandford Cottage now Sandford House Hotel, Wormit, Fife built in 1902 ). Along with the Hill House it marks the transition from the large cl assical villas of the 1860s and the Arts and Crafts/Shavian villas of the later 19th century which dominate the upper part of Helensburgh, towards the architecture of the Modern Movement. Kornwolf notes that the doors and most of the windows are flush with the wall surface and the clea r lines of the building results in a cubistic, geometric form which is analogous to Adolf Loos's Steiner House in Vienna. He also suggests that Mackintosh "looked at this house more than casually beofre designing nearby Hill House a few years later".

External Links

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