Rosemount, 10 Argyle Street West, Helensburgh

Rosemount, 10 Argyle Street West, Helensburgh

A 2-storey, 3-bay rectangular-plan villa originally built in 1836, with additions made by William Leiper in 1895 and by Robert Wemyss in 1907. The building exemplifies the evolution from Victorian villa to Arts and Crafts aesthetic, with flanking red tile-hung additions creating a complex and visually rich composition.

The original villa is constructed of snecked, stugged red and cream sandstone with ashlar dressings. It features a base course with raised margins and chamfered arrises. The ashlar mullioned and corniced windows at ground level are set beneath a lintel course, while bracketed overhanging eaves project prominently at the roofline. The later additions employ cream sandstone at ground floor with red tile-hanging at first floor, combining ashlar mullioned windows at ground level with timber mullioned windows above, and feature bargeboarded gables characteristic of Arts and Crafts design.

The south elevation fronting Argyle Street (the entrance front) presents an architraved and corniced doorpiece to the centre with a panelled fanlit door. To the right sits a bipartite window, while to the left rises a full-height canted window. The first floor contains windows to the centre and right, a slightly recessed bay with canted window to the outer right featuring ovolo moulding to the reveals, and a slightly recessed gabled bay to the outer left with a large window at ground level (originally a French window) and a tripartite oriel at first floor supported on ashlar brackets, with narrow windows on its returns. A tile-hung canted window appears at first floor to the outer right.

The east (side) elevation displays a corbelled and jettied first floor with a canted oriel to the centre supported by timber consoles on a stone corbel. Mock-half timbering decorates the jettied gablehead breaking the eaves. A bipartite window appears to the outer left, whilst a tripartite window to the right is canted around a chamfered north-east angle. A modern window slopes off-centre right at ground level.

The west elevation fronting Colquhoun Street is blank at ground level. At first floor, a corbelled harled pilaster-strip sits off-centre right, crowned by a tall wallhead stack. A corbelled shallow 4-light bowed oriel breaking the eaves projects to the left.

The north (rear) elevation shows a 2-storey flat-roofed block projecting from the centre, with a single-storey addition abutting it featuring mock-half timbering. A single-storey L-plan wing with lean-to roof extends to the outer right, alongside later gabled bays to both outer right and left. A modern forestair accesses the first floor to the left.

The original villa retains mostly plate glass sash and case windows, whilst the additions employ sash and case windows with plate glass to lower sashes and multi-pane to upper sashes, alongside multi-pane casement windows. The villa is roofed in grey slate with cream ashlar corniced end stacks, whilst the additions feature a grey and green slate piended roof with red ridge tiles. Tall cream snecked sandstone corniced stacks serve the wing to the right, with harled examples to the left.

The boundary treatment is substantial. Pink sandstone ashlar piers with stop-chamfered angles and corniced caps flank iron gates, with ashlar coped rubble quadrant walls alongside featuring iron railings. A timber Art Nouveau panelled gate opens onto Colquhoun Street, inset with a slim balustrade to the upper half. Elsewhere, cream sandstone rubble boundary walls feature semi-circular coping.

A former coach-house, now converted for residential use, fronts Colquhoun Street. This single-storey rectangular-plan structure with an attached single-storey and attic block to the south is constructed of stugged and snecked red and cream sandstone with ashlar dressings. The west elevation contains a doorway at centre with a window to the left, whilst the taller block to the outer right has a window at ground and a window breaking the eaves above, with a half-piend roof overhead.