Garthdee House

Garthdee House

Designed by William Smith II in 1872, Garthdee House is a two-storey villa with basement and attic storeys, arranged in six bays, displaying Jacobean detailing. It was converted to a school of architecture in 1956-7. The 1956-7 additions to the east by Thomas Scott Sutherland and further additions to the south and east by Thomson Taylor Craig & Donald in 1969 and 1971 are excluded from this listing.

The house is built in tooled and coursed grey granite ashlar with polished margins. It has a base course and kneelered gables with skewputts, arrowslit openings and stone finials to apexes. Some gables feature two-storey canted windows set beneath a parapet with ball finals.

The northwest entrance elevation is asymmetrical, dominated by an off-centre and advanced curvilinear-gabled entrance bay. A two-leaf panelled timber door with a multi-pane leaded fanlight is set in a chamfered Tudor-arched doorway, with a panel above inscribed "Scott Sutherland School of Architecture". At first floor is a tripartite window with a hoodmould. The gablehead carries a blind shield and a fleur-de-lys stone finial to the apex. A slightly advanced gable to the outer left features buttress detail to the angles, an arrowslit opening to the gablehead and a spherical finial to the apex. A single-storey billiard room wing adjoins to the far left.

The southwest elevation is symmetrical with a recessed centre bay containing a tripartite rectangular bay window beneath a balustraded parapet. A pair of windows at first floor sits below a curvilinear gable with inset blind shield and fleur-de-lys finial to the apex. The centre bay is flanked by gabled bays with three-light canted windows extending through ground and first floors, each set beneath a parapet with decorative spherical finials at the angles.

The fenestration comprises a variety of glazing patterns in timber sash and case windows. The roof is laid in grey slates with lead ridges and coped stone skews with decoratively moulded skewputts. Corniced gablehead and wallhead stacks feature octagonal cans. Cast iron rainwater goods with decorative brackets and hoppers ornament the principal elevations.

The interior, as seen in 2014, is arranged around a fine double-height square-plan hall. This hall has an arcaded gallery at first floor with pilastered round-arched openings and barley-sugar turned timber balustrades. The ceiling is coombed and panelled with a fine leaded skylight at the centre. Round-arched doorways with decoratively panelled timber tympana flank a pilastered and architraved flat-arched opening to the staircase. The staircase is flanked by bronze statues by A. Carrier on square plinths. The staircase itself displays barley-sugar turned timber balusters, scrolled detail below the treads and elegantly carved newel posts. A decorative leaded stair window with inset stained glass panels by Daniel Cottier illuminates the staircase. Panelled timber doors set in deep architraves with panelled rybats provide access to the principal rooms. The ground floor principal rooms, located to the south and west of the plan, have parquet floors, fine cornices and decorative plasterwork to the ceilings. Between two rooms to the west of the plan is a flat arched opening supported on Corinthian fluted columns and pilasters.

To the west of the house stand coped granite ashlar retaining walls with squat square-plan piers and stone steps.