Terpersie, 2 Upper Sutherland Street, Helensburgh

Terpersie is an Arts and Crafts villa built in 1871 by William Leiper. It is situated at 2 Upper Sutherland Street, Helensburgh. The house is two storeys and has an asymmetrical, almost square plan. It is constructed of cream-coloured, stugged and snecked sandstone with red sandstone banding, and cream ashlar dressings. The windows are bipartite and tripartite with stone mullions, and have chamfered arrises. Red sandstone banding is present at the first floor level, with double bands to the gableheads, and the eaves overhang with brackets.

The west (Upper Sutherland Street) elevation features a taller, lop-sided gabled bay at the centre, with a wallhead stack that breaks the eaves to the left. An advanced single-storey bay with a steeply pitched roof is located to the outer right, and a return of a single-storey lean-to service block is positioned to the outer left. The central bay includes a pointed-arch doorway with deeply chamfered reveals, a hoodmould with masque label stops, a boarded door, timber ingoings to the porch, and encaustic tiles to the floor. An animal head carved in stone, depicting a unicorn, is above the doorway, and a carved boar’s head decorates the window to the left, with a tripartite window above at the first floor. An advanced bay to the outer right contains a four-light window.

The south (garden) elevation is M-gabled, with a lop-sided gable to the left, again with a wallhead stack breaking the eaves. A bipartite, mullioned and transomed window is positioned off-centre to the left at ground level (with the lower mullion removed), and a blank armorial panel is set in a squared recess to the far left. A canted window (1-2-1) is to the right, featuring a cornice and a pitched slate roof. A tripartite window is located to the left gable at the first floor, and a bipartite window to the right.

The east (side) elevation has a window off-centre to the right, and to the far right at ground level. A single-storey service wing adjoins to the outer right. A gabled dormer breaks the eaves to the centre, displaying king-post detail to the jettied apex, with a wallhead stack adjacent to the dormer on the left.

The north elevation incorporates a gabled bay to the outer left, with a single-storey gabled block projecting forward, and a window to the gablehead. A bipartite stair window breaks the eaves to the right, featuring a cat-slide roof. An advanced single-storey block with a bipartite window faces north, with a window on its return to the right. A single-storey, four-bay lean-to flanks to the right below the stair window, and a single-storey wing flanks to the outer left.

The windows are mostly plate glass casements. The roof is covered in grey/green slate with red ridge tiles and snecked sandstone stacks. Some original rainwater goods remain. The interior features plain cornices, squared compartmental plasterwork to the ceilings of the reception rooms, a timber dog-leg staircase with turned balusters, and lead-pane glazing to the stair window, which includes Aesthetic Movement stained glass with figurative panels and monograms representing W.L. and M.J. Original timber chimney pieces are also present.