Description

W J B Wright, 1930. 2-storey, roughly 5-bay, L-plan Arts and Crafts manse with Scottish Baronial features including crowstepped gables, bartizan turret and gabled dormers. Entrance to N; service wing with catslide roof to E; N-S orientated gable to W with bartizan at NW corner; gable advanced to N with flat-roofed stair block to left; entrance gable to re-entrant angle. White-painted roughcast render with brown sandstone dressings. Discontinuous eaves course. Plain sandstone window margins.

N (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: studded timber-boarded front door in stop-chamfered architrave with long and short quoins; hoodmould; label stops with angel faces; tablet panel above with carved Lion Rampant; broad stone entrance step with low side wall. 1st floor of entrance gable jettied out on deep stone cornice; window above entrance; windows to left return. Stair block advanced to right with small window at ground and staircase window above; asymmetrical gable to outer right with chimney breast corbelled out on dentilled corbels from 1st floor; datestone inscribed 1930 to left of stack. Service wing recessed to left of entrance with central round arch to recessed lobby; timber-boarded garage door to left; 3 windows to right; 2 3-light strip windows under eaves at 1st floor; piended catslide roof to E return.

W (SIDE) ELEVATION: 3-bays. Stone-mullioned bipartite window at ground to left; gabled dormers breaking eaves to 1st floor; circular bartizan with 1 window to outer left.

S (GARDEN) ELEVATION: irregularly fenestrated. Gable to left with 3-light canted bay window at ground. 2-bay section to centre with gabled dormer at 1st floor; slightly lower 3-bay service wing to right; timber-boarded back door with sidelights; 2 piend-roofed dormers breaking eaves to 1st floor.

Small-pane glazing in horned timber sash and case windows; leaded light to stair with stained glass. Rendered stone-coped stacks with short clay cans. Graded grey slate; ridge tiles. INTERIOR: paved lobby; glazed inner door with bevelled glass; leaded sidelights with some stained glass. Fully panelled entrance hall; central ceiling boss with gilt Greek Cross supporting electric light. Timber dog-leg stair twist balusters; carved lion with shield bearing St Andrews Cross on newel post; stained glass to staircase window with heraldic device, St Andrews Cross and thistles. Drawing room with timber chimney piece, timber picture rail and vine-pattern plaster ceiling frieze. Timber panelled interior doors throughout with brass handles.

Statement of Interest

Occupies a large secluded garden on the western side of Kilmacolm, an area characterised by large villas of this type. The style of the house is relatively late for its date but the synthesis of Arts and Crafts with Scottish revival details, a style popularised by Robert Lorimer and others at the turn of the century, is successfully handled with a high standard of detailing both inside and out. The integration of the garage into the main body of the house is an unusual but successful arrangement that allows for the generous sweep of roof over the East elevation. The water-colour perspective by the architect shows a handsome red motor car disappearing up the drive. The relative lack of chimneys indicate that the house was designed to have central heating.

Very little is known about the architect William John Brockie Wright. His office was in Blytheswood Square, Glasgow, and he had formerly been an assistant to A N Paterson and James Miller.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77781055

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

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  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
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