Towerville, 46, 48 George Street, Helensburgh

Towerville, 46, 48 George Street, Helensburgh

A gabled 2-storey villa over semi-basement designed by John Honeyman in 1858, with substantial additions by Peat and Duncan in 1888. The building is an irregular-plan Tudor Gothic composition of six bays constructed in squared, stugged and snecked cream sandstone with ashlar dressings.

The south (entrance) elevation is the principal façade. It features trefoil and quatrefoil openings to the semi-basement. An advanced crenellated porch is set in a re-entrant angle off-centre to the left, accessed by a flight of steps flanked by stepped coped walls with trefoil decoration. The porch contains a 4-centred-arch doorway with chamfered and moulded reveals and nook-shafts, topped by a moulded hoodmould with decorated label-stops. Two-leaf boarded doors lead to a tripartite vestibule door also featuring nook-shafts and a 4-centred arch. A 4-centred-arch window returns to the left at ground level, with a matching window to the first floor positioned above the porch. A taller gabled bay projects to the right, featuring a canted window at ground level set beneath a crenellated parapet; above this sits a shouldered-arch window at first-floor level within a pointed-arch recess, flanked by columns with carved decoration to the tympanum. A further bay to the far right contains two narrow 4-centred arch windows at ground level flanking a buttress that supports a canted oriel above, detailed with cornice, blocking course, and a fishscale polygonal roof. The 1888 additions include a gabled bay set obliquely at the south-east angle, featuring a deep full-height 5-light bow window, a moulded apron at first-floor level, a crenellated parapet, and an attic window to the gablehead set within a pointed-arch recess. A bay to the left of the entrance has a ground-floor window with a gabled dormer-headed window breaking the eaves above. To the outer left, a slightly advanced gabled bay features a canted window at ground level with crenellated parapet and a first-floor window above.

The west (side) elevation shows the west return of the south wing with a gabled bay to the centre, containing a 4-centred window with decorated label-stops to the hoodmould breaking into the gablehead, and a stack to the gablehead. An advanced gabled wing projects to the left. The east (side) elevation is blank to the east return of the south wing. The north (rear) elevation contains a 2-storey service wing with gabled bays; a gabled bay at the centre features three round-headed windows to the stair at first-floor level, one of which has been blocked by an enclosed forestair to number 48.

The roof is of grey slate with corniced ashlar stacks. Windows throughout are predominantly plate glass sash and case type. Architectural detailing includes a plinth, interrupted string course, ashlar mullioned windows, hoodmoulds, moulded reveals, and finialled decorated bargeboarded gables with overhanging eaves.

Interior features are of considerable quality. The vestibule is paved with encaustic tiles and features stained glass depicting a knight, along with a stained glass door showing flowers with birds to the fanlight. Geometric plasterwork ornaments the vestibule, and a coffered hall leads to the main reception rooms. The dining room displays decorative plasterwork and a 2-tier elaborately decorated cornice with a floreate frieze and geometrical plasterwork centred with a decorated rose. It contains gothic panelled shutters, a carved dado, and a substantial galleried timber chimneypiece with squat columns flanking and tall finialled overmantle. The music room at first-floor level features a coved ceiling. Fine carved doors with panelled surrounds and colonnettes access the main reception rooms. The vestibule and dining room contain stained glass fanlights with figurative roundels to the centre. Full-height stained glass panels in the pointed-arch doorway to the music room display Aesthetic Movement sunflower motifs and a figurative roundel to the centre. The parlour retains a corniced ceiling with an Adamesque-style chimneypiece. A timber balustraded stair survives in the upper residence, having been removed from the lower villa.

The stained glass, notably the porch figure of a knight, was executed by Oscar Paterson.

The lodge, constructed in 1858 and largely obscured by vegetation as of 1991, is a single-storey rectangular block with a broader semi-circular projection to the south. A 2-stage circular crenellated tower rises in the re-entrant angle to the east. Constructed of squared, stugged and snecked cream sandstone with ashlar dressings, it features narrow cusp-headed lancets; those to the curved south elevation are set within pointed-arch headed frames with hoodmoulds. The south projection has a corbelled parapet, and a slate roof covers the north wing. Windows are plate glass.

The boundary wall and gatepiers are of cream sandstone rubble with ashlar coping. The octagonal gatepiers feature nook-shafts and corbelled crenellated caps.