Description

William Leiper, 1901-1903. 2-storey and attic, L-plan Scottish Arts and Crafts villa. Snecked red sandstone to ground floor, harled above with half-timbering detailing, mostly ashlar to N face, polished ashlar dressings. Base course, corbelled at 1st floor with roll-moulded string course, swept eaves, bargeboarded gables, chamfered reveals with half-roll moulding, mullioned and transomed windows with stone mullions at ground floor, wooden mullions above.

N (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: 5 asymmetrical bays with 3-storey wing advanced to right, lower service wing abutting to N (see below). 2 slightly advanced bays to left, small bipartite window to outer left at ground, fine ashlar doorcase to right, composed of depressed-arched entrance, crocketted ogee-arch above with foliated boss at apex interrupting cornice and flanked by short columns; capitals of columns are surmounted by animals and impost corbels of figures in high relief support columns; deep-set half-glazed panelled door, roll-moulded architrave. Bipartite window above. 2 recessed bays to right, including turret corbelled at 1st floor above squinch sheltering a hanging bell. Circular turret corbelled to polygonal above narrow light, polygonal roof. Advanced wing to right with full-height canted bay in re-entrant angle with tall corniced parapet and 3-light mullioned and double transomed hall window at 1st floor.

E (STREET) ELEVATION: 3 asymmetrical bays; narrow light to centre, tripartite window to ground and 1st floors to right. Curved angle expressed at tower to outer left SE, tripartite mullioned and transomed window at ground floor, 3 windows above.

S (GARDEN) ELEVATION: 5 asymmetrical bays; taller 3-storey gabled bay to centre with canted windows at ground and 1st floors, 2-3-2 arrangement at ground, 1-4-1 at 1st floor corbelled to square above with 2-5-2 arrangement of windows and half-timber detail. Recessed gabled bay to right with half-timber detail to apex, tripartite window at ground, 1st and 2nd floors, relieving arch to window at ground floor. Recessed bays to left, taller ashlar gabled bay to outer left with 3 polygonal corniced stacks to apex, narrow light (inglenook) to ground and 1st floors to right, carved panel above to centre. Recessed bay penultimate left incorporating half-glazed door flanked by windows set in depressed-arch recess at ground floor, half-timber balcony above with timber post to centre and braces to angles, tripartite door and window arrangement within. Bipartite piended and finialled dormer above.

WEST ELEVATION: 4 asymmetrical bays; broad canted bay off-centre right with 2-3-2 mullioned and transomed windows at ground floor, 1-2-1 at 1st floor, gambrel roof with bipartite window to gablehead. 2 narrow lights at ground and 1st floor to outer right. 2 lower bays to left, tripartite window at ground and 1st floor to outer left, single window at ground to right, bipartite window above. Lower service wing abutting to outer left see below.

SERVICE WING: single storey and attic link to half-timber pavilion to N (formerly housing billiard room) supported on ashlar posts (partly infilled by rubble wall) with roll-moulded corbels to E; rubble all at ground to W. Single storey piended block abutting to NW. Gambrel roof to pavilion.

Mostly leaded casement windows, decorated pattern to leaded lights in upper section of ground floor canted window to W. Red tiled roof, tall corniced ashlar stacks. Original rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: Fine decoration intact. Hall on EW axis to N side of house, timber wainscot panelling, beams; balustered timber screen to dog-leg stair. Timber panelling to drawing room, wide segmental-arched inglenook recess. Inglenook to dining room.

GATEPIERS AND BOUNDARY WALLS: square red sandstone ashlar piers with rounded angles, saw-tooth ashlar caps, stepped snecked rubble walls, semi-circular coped.

GARDEN PAVILION: single storey, square-plan pavilion, boarded timber with open-timber work depressed-arch and balustrade on S face, fishscale felt tiled pegoda style roof.

Statement of Interest

Drumadoon was built for the McAlpine family who were proprietors of a shipping firm in Glasgow. Like Hill House, it was carefully placed on the site to take full advantage of the view over the Clyde Estuary. An impressive red tiled house, it is an extremely important building in the career of William Leiper whose houses in Helensburgh in the later 19th and early 20th century have left an unique stamp on the character of the town. It combines a skilfully handled composition with a mixture of Scottish and English elements with strong references to the work by Richard Norman Shaw. It's siting by Charles Rennie Machintosh's Hill House, increases it's already considerable interest, in recognition of contextual value.

Statutory address amended from '17 Colquhoun Street Upper' to '17 Upper Colquhoun Street' (2011); correction from 'Formerly Morar Lodge' to 'Formerly Morar House' (2011).

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q1234020

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

• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)