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Summary

Description

William Clarke and George Bell, dated 1885, with circa 1900 billiard room to northeast by James Hoey Craigie. 2-storey and attic, asymmetric, Jacobean Revival former country house (now hotel, 2014) with some advanced bays, distinctive Dutch gables and variety of prominent chimney stacks. The house is set on an elevated position with stone balustrades and steps to the north and west. The building is of distinctive randomly sized and coursed red sandstone with ashlar margins and has a base course, moulded band courses and a cornice. There is a Tudor-arched porte cochere to the entrance elevation. There is a variety of window openings, including some which are Tudor-arched and some tri-partite window openings with stone mullions and transoms. The canted bays have crenellated parapets and the attic dormers have round-arched pediments.

The windows are predominantly plate glass in timber sash and case frames. The roofs have red tiles and there are tall, clustered chimneystacks and a single octagonal corner stack.

The interior was partially seen in 2014. The entrance hall has a significant amount of timber panelling and one public room has ornately carved dark timber panelling with carved lions' heads. There are decorative fire surrounds, one is marble, and some with overmantels. In the centre of the house there is a large oak imperial stair with squared balusters and a curved balustrade. One further ground floor room has a high, barrel vaulted ceiling with timber corbels. Other rooms have decorative cornicing and there is an Ionic columned platform to the bay window in the dining room.

GATEPIERS AND QUADRANT WALLS: pair of red sandstone square-plan gatepiers with base courses and deep cornices, linked to low quadrant walls.

Statement of Special Interest

Adamton House was built in 1885 and designed by the Glasgow architects' firm of William Clarke and George Bell. It has a number of highly distinctive features, including Dutch gables, unusual stonework, and a remarkable array of chimney stacks and is a fine example of a Jacobean Revival style property. The house sits on a raised setting with surviving balustrades and steps and this dominant place in the landscape is one of the house's characteristics. Internally the house has retained some unusual carved timber decoration and a particularly well-detailed imperial stair. The gatepiers and quadrant walls are likely to date from the same time as the house and they form an imposing entrance to the property.

Adamton House was built for John George Alexander Baird, who was an iron and coal master and was the Unionist MP for Glasgow from 1886 - 1906. Around 1900 a flat-roofed billiard room was added to the north east of the house by the architect James Hoey Craigie and is in the same style as the house. In 1942 the house was requisitioned for the war effort and from 1951 until around 1967 it was an officer's club for the United States Air Force, which was stationed at Prestwick. In 1987 it was bought by British Aerospace and became a Flying Training School. The house became a hotel in 2002.

Country houses from the 1880s were built in a variety of styles across Scotland. The Jacobean Revival style of Adamton House was not common for country houses of this period, as by the latter part of the 19th century, the Arts and Crafts style was becoming increasingly popular. Other Jacobean Revival houses in Scotland mostly date from the mid 19th century and include Whitehill, Midlothian (1844), Cleddans in Lanarkshire (1840) and House of Falkland in Fife, (1839-44) (see separate listings). It was also popular to adopt decorative features from English and Scottish vernacular styles, such as crow steps, turrets and half-timbering and these can be seen at Adamton House.

Adamton House has a significant amount of internal decoration in the Jacobean Revival style, such as intricate and deep carved timber fixtures. Grand staircases were made special features and the one here is a particularly good example of its type, as it is positioned in the centre of the property and is not immediately visible form the entrance door.

The practice of William Clarke and George Bell ran between 1841 and 1903 and was based in Glasgow. The two architects met while working for William Burn and had early success in the competition design for the City and County Buildings and second Merchants' House in Glasgow (1841-5). The practice was a prolific and highly regarded one. Their work spanned many types of premises, from large public buildings and schools to private houses. James Hoey Craigie began working in the firm's office in 1895 and was taken into partnership in 1902.

The 1980s ballroom to the southwest and the separate bedroom extension to the east of the house were not considered to be of special architectural interest at the time of the listing review (2014).

References

Bibliography

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