Albion Lodge, 134 Sinclair Street, Helensburgh

Albion Lodge is a 2-storey, asymmetrical L-plan Arts and Crafts villa designed by William Leiper in 1883, with substantial additions by Stewart and Paterson in 1910. It stands as an example of the Shavian Old English style popular in late 19th-century Scottish residential architecture.

The main structure is built in stugged, snecked red sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings. Fishscale red tile-hanging adorns the jettied gables and part of the first floor. The building is characterized by a base course and corbel course at first-floor level, mostly timber-framed windows arranged in canted 1-2-1 configurations with small upper lights, bracketed overhanging eaves, and bargeboarded gables.

The west (entrance) elevation features an advanced porch set in a re-entrant angle, with taller gabled bays on either side. A gabled timber porch on a sandstone base displays a pointed-arch doorway and boarded door, flanked by narrow cusped-arch windows with diamond-pane glazing and glazed quatrefoils above. Two similar windows with quatrefoils appear on the return to the right. The porch floor is laid in encaustic tiles, and a half-glazed vestibule door with lead-pane glazing provides entry. Above this, a tile-hung first floor features a bipartite window with honeycomb-pane glazing, added in 1910. To the right, gabled full-height canted windows contain a timber Elizabethan window at ground level with diamond-pane glazing, and a canted window above with lead-pane glazing to fixed upper panes. An advanced bay to the outer left (1910) displays a gabled full-height canted window with a jettied gablehead; the ground-floor casement windows are inset with stained glass panels and feature lead-pane glazing, while the upper window contains plate glass casement windows with honeycomb-pane glazing to fixed upper panes. A depressed archway with a crenellated parapet adjoins the garage to the outer left (1910).

The north (side) elevation returns elements of the west elevation, with a bipartite window at ground level to the left. Above this stands a 4-light semi-circular oriel with honeycomb lead-glazing to the upper lights, a jettied gablehead, plate glass to the casement windows, and honeycomb-pane glazing to fixed upper panes. Tile-hanging appears on the return to the left at first-floor level. An ashlar mullioned and transomed dormerheaded stair window with diamond-pane glazing inset with stained glass panels sits in the re-entrant angle. A gabled lower 2-storey wing extends to the left, with a modern half-glazed porch abutting it. A single-storey service block (1910) adjoins the outer left at the NE angle.

The east (rear) elevation showcases a gabled full-height canted window to the outer left with plate glass to casements at ground and first-floor levels, geometric-pane glazing to fixed upper panes at ground level, and honeycomb-pane glazing to upper panes at first floor. A window at ground level to the right and a French window to the far right provide further fenestration. Part of this elevation is tile-hung above, with two bipartite windows; the window to the right is set in a lop-sided gablehead. A lower service wing to the outer right features a central window.

The south elevation displays a full-height canted window to the outer left with a jettied gablehead and similar glazing to the east elevation. A timber-framed glazed loggia to the right has a piended and gabled roof. A tall wallhead stack with moulded angles rises above to the right, with an engaged canted dormer adjoining to the left featuring honeycomb-pane glazing to fixed upper panes and a finialled polygonal slate roof.

The single-storey rectangular-plan garage features a window in a gabled bay with a tile-hung gablehead on its west elevation, a window on the south elevation, and boarded doors with a window in a tile-hung gablehead on the east elevation.

The 1910 service wing is a single-storey brick addition adjoining the house at the NE angle.

Throughout the building, casement windows feature lead-pane glazing as noted. The roof is covered in green slate with red ridge tiles, and red sandstone stacks provide chimney venting.

The interior has not been examined.