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Summary

Description

Sir Robert Rowand Anderson, 1879. 2-storey and attic square-plan gabled villa with single-storey service annexes to N. Arts and Crafts gothic with canted bay to S rising to piend-roofed balustraded gazebo in attic and finialled piend-roofed bipartite dormers to N and S. Entrance in gabled E elevation. Bull-faced snecked rubble with polished ashlar dressings.

E (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: square-panelled timber door in chamfered shoulder-arched opening; tripartite pointed-arched fanlight fanlight above, all within pointed-arch chamfered recess; roll moulded hoodmould with foliate ball stops. Small bipartite window to right; larger window above. Shoulder-arched bipartite window to gable apex; pointed-arch hoodmould with ball stops; quatrefoil inset with relief of bird, flanked by circular insets with floreat reliefs to tympanum.

S (PRINCIPAL/GARDEN) ELEVATION: 3-bay. 4-light stone mullioned 2-storey canted bay to outer left rising to balustraded balcony gazebo in attic with 3-light timber window behind. Bipartite windows at ground and first floor to outer right; bipartite dormer above. Irregular fenestration to central bay.

N (ROAD/REAR) ELEVATION: L-plan single-storey piend-roofed scullery annex to ground with early 20th century flat-roofed extensions and garage (see Notes). 2 mullioned bipartite windows at 1st floor, and single window to right. 2 bipartite dormers to attic.

Predominantly timber sash and case windows with small-pane glazing above plate glass. 4-pane glazing in lower sashes of larger windows to S. Leaded glazing in fanlight, 1st floor of canted bay to S and bipartite windows to N. Corniced gable-head stacks with yellow clay cans. Red tiled roof with ashlar coped skews.

INTERIOR: tiled lobby with glazed inner door. Stone staircase with decorative wrought-iron balusters and mahogany hand rail. Some original fireplaces with chamfered or roll-moulded stone insets and timber mantelpieces. Timber panelled doors with some original door furniture.

BOUNDARY WALL AND RAILINGS: high squared and snecked rubble coped boundary wall to N with pyramidal capped ashlar gate piers. Decorative wrought-iron gate to E and wrought-iron railings on low coped snecked rubble boundary wall.

Statement of Special Interest

Originally called Torduff. An unusual and eclectic villa by Rowand Anderson on a prominent site at the corner of Barnshot road and Woodhall road. The overtly Gothic detailing is unusual in Anderson's domestic work (with the obvious exception of Mount Stuart), and reflects the influence of the tour of France and Italy that he made 1859, during which he made a particular study of secular and domestic gothic architecture.

Like Allermuir, and most of the Arts and Crafts houses in Colinton, this house is sited and planned so that the principal rooms face South and overlook the garden, while the less important rooms face East and North. All the service rooms overlook the road, so that the house stands with its back to Woodhall road. This has the double advantage that the private rooms are not visible from the street, and that the garden is more private because it is not overlooked by any of the rooms used by the servants. The extensions to the N, including the garage, were built between 1908 and 1914.

Local rumour says that Anderson built this house for himself, but that his wife didn't like it, so he built Allermuir next door instead. Compared with Allermuir, the interior of this house is quite plain, so it seems unlikely that Anderson fitted it out for his own use. It is more likely that he built it speculatively to protect his view. During the 1880s and 1890s Anderson purchased and developed a number of feus in Woodhall Road and Barnshot Road. Anderson owned this house until 1890. Erskine Nicol, RSA was a tenant.

References

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