The George And Agnes Murray Home, Moredun House, Gilmerton Road, Edinburgh

The George and Agnes Murray Home

A convalescent home designed by Thomas W Turnbull, constructed 1929-30, with a later extension to the east at rear added in 1995 by Mottram Patrick Partnership. The main building comprises a 2-storey central block with single-storey wings arranged in a Y-plan, creating a butterfly plan. The exterior is harled with artificial stone quoins and dressings, including a base course and eaves course. All windows are double-glazed units with 8-pane glazing patterns.

The north elevation is nearly symmetrical. The eaves sweep down to single storey level, and an advanced porch with a timber-glazed door, side lights and fanlight above sits at the centre. This door sits within a round-arched tripartite opening, with windows flanking it. A narrow window appears on the right return. Two piened dormers rise above to the first floor. Two-storey bays flank the porch, each with two bipartite windows at ground and first floor levels, except the left bay which has a tripartite window at ground floor. A recessed single-storey bay with a bipartite window at ground floor and a dormer to the first floor links the main block to the single-storey wings. The west wing has three bipartites at ground level, while the east wing has five single windows.

The south elevation is symmetrical, featuring a full-height recessed central bay. An entrance to the garden sits at ground floor, formed of timber-glazed double doors set within a small-pane glazed screen between two Ionic columns (originally from Moredun House), which support a curved balcony above with an ironwork balustrade. A narrow doorway at first floor is flanked by two windows, one of which is blocked. Flanking this central bay are advanced piened 4-bay blocks, with single-storey 7-bay wings adjoining.

The piened roofs are covered in grey slates, with swept eaves and low harled corniced ridge stacks to the main block.

The 1995 addition to the southeast is a single-storey harled structure with an artificial stone blocking course. It is symmetrical with an advanced central bay containing two windows and two piened outer bays each with a window. All windows are uPVC bipartites with sills at ground level. The roof is grey slate.

Interior

The interior retains a well-detailed original decorative scheme largely intact. The entrance hall features natural timber dado panelling and surrounds to all openings. A dog-leg stair has simple cast-iron balusters with moulded bases and a bracelet at the centre of the shaft. Corridors to the wings retain natural timber dado panelling. The Billiard Room to the northwest wing retains its original fittings.

An 18th-century carved baluster sundial sits on the patio to the south, now set on a new concrete base.

Associated Structures

Two mid-19th-century stable ranges form a courtyard to the east of the main house. Both have rubble walls and are flanked by ashlar gatepiers.

The north range is single-storey with attic, built of squared rubble with ashlar dressings and a piened roof. An enlarged garage opening has been inserted on the outer left. Four timber-boarded doors serve the stalls, each with a 2-pane fanlight above, flanked by windows with fixed lights and small-pane glazing. Two doors provide access to haylofts above, breaking the eaves in piened dormerheads, with three rooflights.

The south range is a lower single-storey rubble lean-to, probably originally a cartshed. Its openings have been altered, with some retained as timber-boarded doors and others bricked up. Rubble quadrant walls adjoin each range to the east, terminating in stugged ashlar drum gatepiers.

A single-storey lodge, designed by Turnbull and built 1929-30, stands nearby. It is harled with painted artificial stone quoins, base course and eaves course, with a piened roof and central stack. The door sits in an angle to the north, panelled with a strip fanlight. Bipartite windows appear on each elevation.

Four ashlar drum gatepiers, originally serving Moredun House, are linked by a low coped wall of squared rubble with a base of ashlar. Late 19th-century cast-iron railings and cast- and wrought-iron gates complete the composition.