1-4 Lagarie House, Torwoodhill Road, Rhu

Lagarie House, Torwoodhill Road, Rhu

A two-storey house with attic, designed by A N Paterson and dated 1901. The building is rectangular in plan with an asymmetrical composition typical of Arts and Crafts architecture. It is finished with white harl and applied half-timbering at first floor level, except to the tower; ashlar is used for margins and dressings on the east front. The base course is of ashlar, with projecting eaves and exposed rafters throughout, and chamfered reveals to windows.

The east (entrance) elevation is the principal front, with four asymmetrical bays. A square, keep-like bay projects to the right with ashlar facing and an ashlar parapet. At first floor within the parapet rises a half-timbered, gabled attic storey. A quadripartite projecting window occupies the ground floor of the keep with leaded roof, overhanging eaves, bracketed ashlar mullions, and exposed rafters. The first floor has a tripartite window with ashlar mullions and transoms (the lower pane is plate glass, the upper pane has four lights). A datestone inscribed 1901 with the monogram AP is positioned at the centre. The ashlar parapet rises on roll-moulded corbelling with stepped and curved corners and moulded coping; a cast-iron gate is set at the outer right of the parapet. Above the parapet, a half-timbered, gabled cap house with a slate and bell-cast roof, finials and decorative ridge tiles forms a walkway bounded by the parapet walls. The roofs of the attic storey have tripartite casement windows with shared mullions and bargeboards.

To the left of the keep, a stepped curtain wall is terminated by a tall ashlar pier with a moulded ball finial. A porch-bay is set obliquely within a re-entrant angle to the left. Beyond this, a bowed bay with a conical slate roof and lead finial projects to the right, with overhanging bracketed eaves abutting the corner of the keep. Three windows are symmetrically disposed with bolection-moulded margins and a lintel course beneath a conical slate roof with lead finial and exposed rafters.

An angled entrance bay to the left has a decorative, interlacing thistle carved openwork bargeboard to a gabled canopy supported on timber columns. The round-headed doorway is of polished sandstone with a wooden panelled door featuring a glazed roundel at the upper portion, and half-timbering is positioned above. A slender, decorative leaded window sits immediately to the left of the door on the left return. Two bays rise behind the porch with a tripartite window at the centre directly under the eaves with shared timber mullions. A taller, canted, half-timbered tower bay to the left has a slate roof with finial; timber casement windows are positioned directly under the eaves, with a casement window on the left return and a transomed and mullioned window at ground floor. A lower bay at the outer left is blank at ground floor with a deeply indented arris; the upper floor is half-timbered with a bipartite casement window.

The south elevation is a near-symmetrical five-bay block with a single-storey lean-to bay at the outer left. The ground floor is harled with half-timbering at first floor. The central four-bay symmetrical block is flanked by taller jerkin-headed pavilions to right and left. Each pavilion has a broad, shallowly bowed window at ground floor with a tripartite window and lead roof with bracketed eaves. Above, there is a gently bowed tripartite window with a decorative fish-scale, tile-hung panel above. Two central bays contain bipartite windows with broad timber mullions. The ground floor is infilled by a timber lean-to glazed verandah with a tarred felt roof. A bay at the outer right contains a window at ground floor with blank timber-frame at first floor. A square, lean-to bay is recessed at the outer left.

The west elevation is asymmetrical. The main two-storey block of the house is fronted by a single half-piend roofed bay advanced at the outer right. A canted conservatory is positioned off-centre to the left as a single-storey structure, with a gabled bay attached to the outer left. A harled bay at the outer right has a tripartite opening with French doors at the centre and flanking windows. The canted conservatory advanced off-centre to the left features cast-iron ridge brattishing and a finial. At first floor of the main block to the left of centre, there is a single and bipartite window, with an advanced breast and stack between. A single-storey block at the outer left has a canted window with a bargeboarded, fish-scale, tile-hung gable and is jettied on masonry corbels.

The north elevation has a keep at the outer left with a bipartite ashlar-faced window to the right and a flat-roofed extension at ground with a side entrance. The main block recesses to the left and contains a tripartite, leaded, ashlar, transomed and mullioned, stepped stair window. A modern door is positioned at the right at ground floor. A tripartite window at ground floor lies to the right with two bipartite windows at first floor. A single-storey scullery block is positioned to the right with a window and gabled bay; an arched recess is blocked as a window at upper level.

Throughout the building, windows are predominantly multi-pane leaded casement windows, together with twelve-pane, six-pane and twelve-pane sash and case windows, and plate glass sash and case windows.

The interior features a mosaic tiled porch and a hall with wainscotting and a sandstone fireplace. A beamed ceiling is embellished with a timber fireplace and white-painted panelling. Panelled archivolts are employed for round-headed recesses. A Queen Anne style chimneypiece is a notable feature. A fine panelled depressed arch buffet recess contains an integral panelled buffet.