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• Type

  Map

  Title

  Summary for West Lodge including gatepiers and rear outbuilding and excluding former ancillary building to west, Robert Gordon University, Garthdee Road, Aberdeen (LB52365)

  Download(https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/document/600002482)

Summary

Description

West Lodge was built in 1872 and is a single storey and attic, 3 bay, rectangular-plan, Jacobean former gate lodge to the northwest of Garthdee House. In accordance with Section 1 (4A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 the following are excluded from the listing: former L-plan ancillary range to the west of the lodge.

West Lodge is constructed in Aberdeen bond, cherry-cocked granite with a base course, tooled granite, long and short margins and the openings are chamfered. It has kneelered gables and skewputts. At the centre of the principal (southeast) elevation is a slightly advanced kneelered entrance gable with a pointed arched doorpiece and a replacement entrance door. Above the doorpiece is a spherical light suspended on a decorative iron bracket over the door, and there is a blind shield to the gablehead and stone finial at the apex. Box dormers flank the central gable. The northeast gable elevation has a 3-light canted bay window in ashlar granite, with a cornice and blocking course. The rear (northwest) elevation has a 20th century, single storey addition which is harled and has a piended roof. There is a box dormer to the northwest roof pitch of the lodge.

To the rear of the lodge is a single storey, rectangular plan, rubble-built outbuilding, with a monopitch slate roof.

There is predominantly 4-pane glazing in timber sash and case frames. The roof is pitched with grey slates. There are gablehead stacks with chamfered copes and pairs of decorative clay cans.

The interior, seen in 2014, is symmetrically arranged around a central staircase. No features from the 19th century decorative scheme are apparent.

To the north and northeast are two pairs of squat, square-plan gatepiers, with stop-chamfered corners, moulded cornice detail and very shallow pyramidal cap.

Statement of Special Interest

In accordance with Section 1 (4A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 the following are excluded from the listing: former L-plan ancillary building to the west of the lodge.

Located around 0.3 km to the northwest of Garthdee House, this gate lodge with associated gatepiers is an important ancillary component of the former Garthdee estate and enhances the architectural and historic setting of Garthdee House. The lodge has some good Jacobean stonework details, such as kneelered gables with a stone finial, which reference the style of Garthdee House. It is therefore likely that West and East Lodge were designed by William Smith II and are contemporary with Garthdee House, which was built in 1872. Together with Garthdee House and East Lodge, West Lodge is part of a group of estate buildings whose survival informs our understanding of this late 19th century estate which has been redeveloped into a university campus.

Garthdee House and its associated lodges are first shown on the 2nd edition Ordnance Survey Map of 1901. On this map West Lodge is shown as rectangular in plan, with a canted bay to the northeast elevation and the outbuilding immediately to the rear.

In 1953 Thomas Scott Sutherland (1899–1963) bought the 20 acre Garthdee estate and lived in Garthdee House. Scott Sutherland was an Aberdeen School of Architecture graduate, who became an architect and entrepreneur and gifted the estate to Robert Gordon's College in 1953 for the building to be used as the college's School of Architecture. This gift estate was decisive in the history of Robert Gordon University. The relocation of Gray's School of Art to Garthdee in 1967 marked the beginning of the development of the campus, and since then further land has been purchased and the campus is now the centre of the University as all other departments have relocated here. West Lodge accommodated the University's gardener and East Lodge accommodated the Janitor. Both lodges are now used as teaching or office spaces. The origins of Robert Gordon University can be traced back to 1729 when Robert Gordon, an Aberdeen merchant trader, founded Robert Gordon's Hospital to educate the young sons and grandsons of the Burgesses of the Guild who were too poor to send them to school. In 1881 the hospital become Robert Gordon's College with a secondary day school and separate adult education college. Since 1881 the training work of various other institutes and societies were transferred to the college, leading to various name changes until it was awarded university status in 1992.

Garthdee Estate is situated in the Pitfodels area of Aberdeen. The rural Pitfodels estate, which stretched from Cults to the Bridge of Dee, was owned by the Menzies family since the 15th century. From 1805 the last laird, John Menzies began to feu some of the estate and when he died in 1843, without any descendants the remaining estate was purchased by the Pitfodels Land Company. Brogden, in his book Aberdeen, An Illustrated Architectural Guide (1998), notes that the plots varied in size, but were as large as 8-10 acres along the side of the River Dee, where Garthdee is situated. An 1895 account describes it as follows "...The greater part of the lands of Pitfodels is now studded with beautiful mansions and villas, each of which stands amid well laid out and carefully kept grounds. They mostly belong to manufacturers and gentlemen engaged in business in Aberdeen, and retired gentlemen." (Mackintosh, p.29). Large villas surrounded by trees were erected in a number of the larger plots and these continue to be a feature of this area.

Category changed from B to C, statutory address and listed building record revised in 2016. West Lodge was was previously listed at category B with Garthdee House (LB47908) as 'Garthdee Road, Garthdee House (Scott Sutherland School of Architecture), including Terrace Walls and Steps, East and West Lodges'.

References

Bibliography

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