Lomond School, 89 James Street, Helensburgh

Lomond School, 89 James Street, Helensburgh

This is a mid-19th century villa substantially remodelled by architect William Leiper in 1888 and 1891. The building is a 2-storey, asymmetrical Jacobean-style villa with crowstepped gables and crenellated parapets. It is constructed of stugged and coursed cream and pinkish sandstone with ashlar dressings, incorporating a base course, bipartite and tripartite windows with ashlar mullions, chamfered arrises, moulded reveals, hoodmoulds, and interrupted cill courses.

The south (entrance) elevation features a gable entrance bay positioned off-centre to the right, part of the earlier villa structure. This incorporates an ashlar stair and base supporting a gabled timber-framed porch with a pointed-arch entrance, mock-half timber to the gablehead, decorative bargeboard, and lead-pane glazing in ogee-headed lights to side windows beneath a green slate roof with red ridge tiles. The doorway contains two-leaf panelled doors. Above at first floor is a window with a stepped hoodmould. Some bargeboard remains at the apex and ends of the gable. To the left are two taller 2-storey and attic bays, each with a coped crowstepped gable and finialled apex. The bay to the left of the entrance features a 2-storey canted window and a bipartite window to the gablehead. The bay at the far left has a mullioned and transomed window at ground level, a bipartite window at first floor, and a tripartite attic window to the gablehead. A projecting full-height canted bay with coped crenellated parapet extends to the outer left; a hoodmould course at first floor level displays animal gargoyles, with 2-2-2 mullioned and transomed lights at ground and 2-2-2 lights at first floor. A crenellated angle tower stands to the right of the entrance bay, with bipartite windows at ground and first floor to the south, a canted return with chamfered angle to the southeast, and narrow windows at ground and first floor to the east. A corbel course with gargoyles, crocketted finials, and a date stone inscribed '1888' supports the crenellated parapet.

The east (side) elevation features a canted crenellated angle tower to the left and a gable bay to the right with windows at ground and first floor. A recessed bay contains an advanced squared window bay at ground level with a tripartite mullioned and transomed window beneath a crenellated parapet, with a first-floor window above. A lower 2-storey wing extends to the far right with a projecting single-storey lean-to block; a gable dormer-headed window breaks the eaves above. A service wing projects further to the outer right.

The north (rear) elevation presents an asymmetrical arrangement of windows and roof levels, with modern escape stairs, a single-storey wing projecting off-centre left, and a service wing to the outer left. A stair block stands off-centre right, with an advanced ashlar bay at ground level containing a pair of mullioned and transomed windows. Above is a corbelled and overhanging bay with a timber-mullioned and transomed stair window featuring four round-headed lights; a doorway opens on the return to the right.

The west (side) elevation is slightly advanced as a 2-storey and attic gable, with a 2-storey canted bay to the centre containing a mullioned and transomed window at ground level, a tripartite window at first floor, and a tall parapet. A tripartite attic window lights the gablehead. Coped skews to the gable feature a finialled apex and ball finials to the skewputts.

The roofing incorporates a variety of lead-pane glazing to casement and fixed-pane windows with plain square-pane and geometric designs including honeycomb patterns. Some 4-pane sash-and-case windows remain. The roof is covered in grey slate with mostly corniced ashlar stacks; one Jacobean stack features several polygonal shafts with moulded cans. Original rainwater goods are retained.

The interior contains plastered ceilings and cornices to the main rooms. A timber-coffered hall features foliated bosses and floreate embossed wallpaper. The former drawing room to the west retains a segmental-arched inglenook with wainscot incorporating delicate carved panels, a timber chimneypiece and overmantel with three round-headed niches, and a coffered ceiling with plaster decoration including acorn and grape or vine motifs. A wide decorated frieze and lionhead corbels support the cornice. The former billiard room at first floor displays an inglenook and strapwork plaster decoration. An inglenook in the attic room above contains a chimneypiece with blue and white Dutch tiles.