Harmeny House, 45 Mansefield Road, Balerno

Harmeny House, 45 Mansfield Road, Balerno

Harmeny House is a substantial dwelling built in 1898 by Dunn & Findlay and significantly expanded between 1906 and 1907 by R S Lorimer in the Scottish Arts and Crafts style. The building is rendered in white harl with ashlar sandstone margins, dressings, and eaves band.

The principal south-east elevation reveals the earlier core of the house: a 2-storey, 6-bay centre block with a 3-storey square tower. A canted bay projects into a re-entrant angle to the right, with principal rooms positioned in bays to the outer right and left. Lorimer's additions extend the building substantially to the west and east.

The entrance tower is a 3-stage structure, originally 2-stage. It features a sandstone pilastered and corniced doorcase positioned off-centre to the right, with a basket-arched door and 2-leaf panelled door. At the 1st floor sits a tripartite window with a moulded ashlar surround; a window directly under the eaves lights the 2nd floor. The tower is topped with a Lorimer-style bell-cast roof and weathervane.

To the right of the tower lies a 2-storey canted bay at the re-entrant angle, with 3 windows at each floor and a red sandstone blocking course. A wallhead stack rises immediately to the right of this bay, with a ground-floor window adjacent. Windows are symmetrically disposed in the bay to the outer right. A lean-to greenhouse on a brick base is built against the outer right bay. The 2-bay right return features bipartite windows to the outer left and a narrow bay to the right, both lit by bell-cast dormers. To the left of the tower, two symmetrical bays are present, with a canted, coped bay window at the left return and a 1st-floor window above it. A narrow inner bay is now masked by a metal fire escape. Bell-cast roofed dormers light this section.

The north-west (entrance) elevation is notably asymmetrical. The 6-bay core comprises a gabled entrance and advanced end pavilions with a service block to the outer left. The advanced tall, broad gabled entrance is positioned off-centre to the right. It sits on a battered base course and features a round-arch pend entrance in squared undressed rubble. The inner door is heavy, panelled oak with a brass zoomorphic handle. An ashlar pedimented window at the 1st floor bears a sculpted tympanum with the monogram 'WY' in the pediment. A small attic window and Lorimerian detail to the gable complete this feature. The flanking bays are asymmetrical: the bay to the right has a mannered dormer, and an advanced 2-bay outer right block displays windows symmetrically disposed at ground and 1st-floor levels. A window at ground level appears in the penultimate bay, and a stepped wallhead stack marks the centre. To the left of the entrance, a tall ground-floor window and small bipartite at 1st floor are present, with a narrow bay to the left. An advanced block to the outer left contains a tripartite window at ground and bipartite window at 1st floor. A rubble wall to the right of the ground-floor window defines an entrance court area. An asymmetrical service range extends to the north-east, with an advanced flat-roofed block to the outer left.

The south-west elevation shows a sandstone canted window at ground level with blocking course and a bipartite dormerhead at 1st floor. The 2-bay right return is lit by a tall ground-floor window (6-pane over 9-pane) and mannered dormerheads.

Throughout, fenestration comprises 6-pane over plate glass sash and case windows at the principal elevation, multi-paned sash and case elsewhere, and multi-paned casements in dormers. The roof is Grey slate pitched, with bell-cast roofs over the tower and dormers. Harled and coped wallhead stacks are prominent, and ashlar coping finishes the gable of the entrance.

The interior retains Art Nouveau details in some bathrooms and radiators, a simple timber stair, and plain cornices.

The boundary treatment comprises a roughly-hewn, squared and snecked sandstone rubble wall with semicircular coping, arranged in an L-plan formation at the north and east. A balustrade of squat ashlar balusters on a rubble plinth with slab coping frames an opening immediately in front of the north-east entrance.