Description

Late 19th century. Single storey and attic, 3-bay, T-plan gabled villa with single storey L-plan wing. White harled with applied half-timbered gables. Timber bargeboards; exposed rafter ends. Irregular fenestration of predominantly tripartite windows with timber mullions and transoms.

SW (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: central advanced porch with catslide roof and 2-leaf timber-boarded door with side lights; glazed returns; small dormer above. Tripartite window to right with dormer above; tripartite canted window with cornice in 2-storey gable to left; tripartite window above.

FURTHER DESCRIPTION: tall wallhead stacks to side elevations. Irregularly fenestrated single storey wing to rear.

Variety of casement windows. Grey slate roofs, jerkin-headed service wing to right at SE elevation. Pair of 20th century skylights to rear. Wallhead stacks with short red clay cans. Plastic and cast-iron rainwater goods.

BOUNDARY WALLS, GATEPIERS AND GATES: coped squared and snecked rubble walls; pedestrian and vehicular gates to left and right of house at SE elevation, gatepiers in round-headed field gate form, contemporary with house, vertically boarded timber gates with railed upper section.

Statement of Interest

A well-designed and prominent small villa, built for the Glasgow Corporation waterworks as a watchman's house to oversee the nearby water main valve chamber. A number of watchmen's cottages were constructed at critical points along the course of the conduit, which runs from Loch Katrine to Mugdock and Craigmaddie reservoirs and thence into Glasgow, to ensure the safety and upkeep of the water supply system. This house is the best architecturally (reflecting its up-market location) and least altered of all these cottages.

The Glasgow Corporation Water Works system, which brings water down to Glasgow from Loch Katrine, was admired internationally as an engineering marvel when it was opened in 1860. It was one of the most ambitious civil engineering schemes to have been undertaken in Europe since Antiquity, employing the most advanced surveying and construction techniques available, including the use of machine moulding and vertical casting technologies to produce the cast-iron pipes. The scheme represents the golden age of municipal activity in Scotland and not only provided Glasgow with fresh drinking water, thereby paving the way for a significant increase in hygiene and living standards, but also a source of hydraulic power that was indispensable to the growth of Glasgow's industry as a cheap and clean means of lifting and moving heavy plant in docks, shipyards and warehouses. The civic pride in this achievement is visible in every structure connected with the scheme. The scheme was built in two main phases following Acts of 1855 and 1885. The 1855 phase was opened by Queen Victoria in 1859 and was fully operational by 1860.

List description updated following thematic review of Glasgow waterworks, 2008.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77774080

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.

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