Rockland, 150 Clyde Street East, Helensburgh

Rockland is a Greek Revival villa built in 1854 by Alexander Thomson. It is a two-story, symmetrical T-plan building with a single-story service wing extending to the east. The villa is constructed of grey, cream, and red bull-faced snecked rubble with cream ashlar dressings. A continuous plinth, cill band, and lintel course run along the building. The windows are bipartite, tripartite, and multi-partite, featuring ashlar pilaster-mullions and pilastered reveals. Small peephole roundels are set into the gableheads, surrounded by deep decorative elements, and the eaves overhang.

The north (Clyde Street) elevation presents a prominent advanced gabled bay to the far right, featuring paired windows at ground level. A substantial projecting ashlar porch is located in the re-entrant angle, supported by distyle piers set in-antis; it has a cornice, blocking course, and a tripartite doorway with panelled double doors bordered by a patera design. Lead-paned windows flank the entrance, and an entablature with patera decoration runs along the frieze. Plate glass fanlights illuminate the door and windows. A deep-set tripartite vestibule with a glazed doorway displaying an anthemion and palmette frieze is also present. A window is located to the left of the porch, with a bipartite window above and to the left on the first floor.

The west elevation has an advanced gabled bay centrally positioned, with a small bipartite window at ground level and a tripartite window on the first floor, flanked by narrower windows on each return. A recessed bay is on the right side, containing a first-floor window. A single-story pavilion abuts in the re-entrant angle, with a tripartite window facing north, and a modern flat-roofed conservatory is adjoined to the south.

On the south (rear) elevation, an advanced gabled bay is located on the outer left, featuring paired windows at ground level. A five-light window sits above on the first floor. A doorpiece, with a two-leaf panelled door and pilastered reveals, is positioned in the re-entrant angle on the return to the right; incised decoration appears on the architrave and flanking die walls, with a corresponding window above on the first floor. A recessed wing on the right contains three closely grouped windows at ground level, and a seven-light window spans the bays on the first floor.

The east elevation is abutted by the single-story service wing. The service wing’s north (entrance) elevation has a taller advanced gabled bay with a five-light window, two windows to the right, and a narrow window to the left; a two-leaf panelled door is located on the far left. The east elevation of the service wing features a window to the center and a door to the right. The south elevation replicates the north, with a modern flat-roofed conservatory abutting on the outer right.

The windows are a mix of plate glass and four-pane sash and case styles. The roof is M-gabled with a low pitch on the advanced gabled bays, covered with grey/green slates, decorated cans, and anthemion acroteria.

The interior is richly decorated, with pilaster-flanked panels in the hall and an anthemion and palmette frieze throughout. The dining room features Egyptian-style doors, vertically panelled with patera borders and guilloche decoration accompanied by an anthemion and palmette frieze. The wall frieze and cornice are similarly detailed. A sideboard recess features paired piers with anthemion and palmette capitals and egg and dart moulding. A dog-leg timber staircase has a bronze balustrade with an inverted palmette and fret border.

An ashlar pedestal sundial, with a flat octagonal dial-stone, is also part of the property.