Listed Building

The only legal part of the listing under the Planning (Listing Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 is the address/name of site. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing – see 'About Listed Buildings' below for more information. The further details below the 'Address/Name of Site' are provided for information purposes only.

Address/Name of Site

79 BALGOWNIE ROAD, GLOVER HOUSE (FORMERLY KNOWN AS BRAEHEAD), INCLUDING BOUNDARY WALLSLB49996

Status: Designated

Documents

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Summary

Category
B
Date Added
05/10/2004
Supplementary Information Updated
19/05/2020
Local Authority
Aberdeen
Planning Authority
Aberdeen
Parish
Old Machar
NGR
NJ 93816 9759
Coordinates
393816, 809759

Description

Early 19th century; extended between 1838 and 1855; further additions including addition of 1st floor, 1862. Rectangular 2-storey house with single storey outshoots and basement to rear. To ground floor, random and squared granite rubble built to courses with squared dressed quoins; to 1st floor, squared coursed granite with some pinnings, dressed quoins; harling to some single storey sections. To S elevation, base course, band course dividing ground and 1st floors, eaves band. Smooth narrow margins to quoins and windows.

S ELEVATION: 3-bay, 2-storey elevation; single storey gabled harled porch to centre bay with step leading to 2-leaf timber and glazed door.

E ELEVATION: irregular 4-bay elevation; to centre, harled single storey, single bay outshoot; timber and glazed quadrant porch in re-entrant angle to left; blocked window to far left to ground floor; no window to far left bay to 1st floor.

W ELEVATION: to left, advanced 3-bay, single storey and basement section with steps leading down to sunken basement area in front; 2-leaf timber panelled door with 3-light fanlight to centre bay of basement. To right, irregular recessed 3-bay, 2-storey section with timber panelled door and 3-light fanlight to left.

N ELEVATION: continuous with boundary wall, single storey section to right with 2 windows, blank 2-storey to left (several courses of brick between ground and 1st floors.

GLAZING etc: replacement 12-pane timber sash and case windows. Piended roof to 2-storey sections; pitched roof to single storey sections; overhanging eaves. Coped granite wallhead stacks to E, W and 2 to N elevations; stack to right of N elevation partly constructed of brick; circular cans. Predominantly aluminium rain water goods. Cast iron spearheaded railings edging basement area.

INTERIOR:

Timber and leaded glazed front door. Large hall divided by segmental arch. Simple cornicing and variety of doorpieces, including pilastered and corniced, throughout. Original classical slate chimneypiece to dining room; remainder of chimneypieces are not original to house (see Notes). Quarter-turn open well stair with turned newels and balusters. To basement, kitchen, coal cellar and wine cellar.

Statement of Special Interest

Currently in use as a museum.

A good example of a multi-phase 19th century villa with important international historical associations. The original core of Glover House is the basement area currently forming the kitchen, with a single storey, 2- or 3-roomed cottage of the same footprint above. Between 1838 and 1855, the house was extended to create its current footprint (excluding the porches and single storey outshoot to the E; these appear to have been added between 1855 and 1867). In 1862, the 1st floor was added, with advice from Thomas Blake Glover.

Glover House was, from 1851, the home of the Glover family. Their son, Thomas Blake Glover (1838-1911), left Aberdeen for Japan in 1857. He moved to Nagasaki, where he began a shipbuilding business which formed the foundation of the Mitsubishi corporation. Glover is credited with having brought Western industrialisation to Japan, as well as the first steam locomotive and the county's first mechanised mine. He organised the education of many young Japanese abroad, including Britain, some of whom stayed at Glover House. Glover and his Japanese wife are also thought to be an inspiration for the stories on which Puccini based Madame Butterfly. Glover was the first non-Japanese to be awarded the order of The Rising Sun, and regarded as one of the founding fathers of modern Japan.

In 1997 the house was purchased by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Europe and gifted to the Grampian-Japan Trust. The house then underwent conversion to a museum, during which original fabric was revealed and restored.

References

Bibliography

Ordnance Survey 1st, 2nd and 3rd Edition Maps.

W Brogden, ABERDEEN, (1998), p180.

Information courtesy of the Glover Museum.

About Listed Buildings

Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.

We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.

Listing is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for buildings of special architectural or historic interest as set out in the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997.

We list buildings which are found to be of special architectural or historic interest using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)

Listed building records provide an indication of the special architectural or historic interest of the listed building which has been identified by its statutory address. The description and additional information provided are supplementary and have no legal weight.

These records are not definitive historical accounts or a complete description of the building(s). If part of a building is not described it does not mean it is not listed. The format of the listed building record has changed over time. Earlier records may be brief and some information will not have been recorded.

The legal part of the listing is the address/name of site which is known as the statutory address. Other than the name or address of a listed building, further details are provided for information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland does not accept any liability for any loss or damage suffered as a consequence of inaccuracies in the information provided. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing. Even if a number or name is missing from a listing address it will still be listed. Listing covers both the exterior and the interior and any object or structure fixed to the building. Listing also applies to buildings or structures not physically attached but which are part of the curtilage (or land) of the listed building as long as they were erected before 1 July 1948.

While Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating listed buildings, the planning authority is responsible for determining what is covered by the listing, including what is listed through curtilage. However, for listed buildings designated or for listings amended from 1 October 2015, legal exclusions to the listing may apply.

If part of a building is not listed, it will say that it is excluded in the statutory address and in the statement of special interest in the listed building record. The statement will use the word 'excluding' and quote the relevant section of the 1997 Act. Some earlier listed building records may use the word 'excluding', but if the Act is not quoted, the record has not been revised to reflect subsequent legislation.

Listed building consent is required for changes to a listed building which affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest. The relevant planning authority is the point of contact for applications for listed building consent.

Find out more about listing and our other designations at www.historicenvironment.scot/advice-and-support. You can contact us on 0131 668 8914 or at designations@hes.scot.

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