Dovecot And Compost Shelter, Millbuies House, 43 Gogarbank

Dovecot and Compost Shelter, Millbuies House, 43 Gogarbank

This is a Modern Movement house designed by Robert Matthew of Robert Matthew, Johnson-Marshall, with James Dunbar Nasmith as project architect, built between 1955 and 1960. The compost shelter and dovecot were added in 1961. The building is set centrally within a large garden on a steeply sloping site.

The main house is single storey with a basement to the south-east, arranged on a roughly rectangular plan with an enclosed inner courtyard. It features a buff-coloured brick base course with predominantly vertically boarded cedar cladding to the timber structure. The basement, side walls of the west elevation, and garage are harled brick. Timber eaves course and advanced timber window surrounds are characteristic features.

The north-east entrance elevation has a cantilevered canopy with a glazed rear section over a recessed entrance to the centre. An integral double garage to the right is separated by a harled brick pier, with flat-arched former garage door openings now blocked with original metal roller doors behind and horizontal clerestorey glazing above. A wide flat-arched opening to the left return of the garage has sliding timber and glazed doors.

The south-east elevation features the principal section cantilevered over the basement with timber boarding to the underside of the cantilever. A timber door at basement level is to the left, with a harled brick recessed bay also to the left, complete with a timber flower box beneath the window opening.

The south-west elevation has three advanced bays to the left, with a concrete ramp to the entrance at the centre, fitted with timber and glazed door and a rectangular fanlight.

The north-west elevation displays timber and glazed entrance doors flanking a horizontally boarded section with strip windows, a concrete step to the entrances, and a cantilevered timber canopy over the door to the left.

The inner courtyard has a tiled base course and vertically boarded cedar cladding with openings facing the hard landscaped courtyard. Two-leaf timber and glazed doors to the north-west elevation have been converted to a window; later two-leaf doors are present to the north-east and south-west elevations, with glazed strip to the south-east elevation.

Windows predominantly feature original plate glass double glazing in timber-framed fixed panes with side casement windows, some with top-hung hoppers. Some original triple glazing exists to the fixed pane sections of windows to the west elevation, and predominantly two layers of original double-glazed units are found to courtyard windows. A late 20th-century door serves the inner courtyard. The roof is flat felt, with pitched felt roof to the advanced bays of the west elevation. Red brick stacks rise from the building.

A buff-coloured brick retaining wall extends from the south corner and is topped with original painted metal railings. A quarter-turn staircase with concrete treads wraps around the retaining wall.

The interior, recorded in 2011, is characterised by timber panelling and timber fixtures and fittings to the principal living spaces. Parquet flooring is present throughout. The living room features sliding window shutters concealed in a recess behind fixtures and a brick fireplace with an integral firescreen concealed in timber panelling above. Window shutters also serve the kitchen. A timber tilting post hatch partitions the entrance lobby in the north-west elevation from the utility room. Original square ceiling tiles remain.

A rectangular-plan building on the lower ground to the south-west of the courtyard forms part of the composition.

The dovecot, added in 1961, is of circular plan with tapered sandstone rubble walls and a small square opening below the eaves with a projecting timber sill. It has a slate conical roof with a rubble wall extending to the south.

The compost shelter, also added in 1961, is rectangular in plan, constructed in sandstone rubble with a high-level timber hatch. It features a pyramidal slate roof to the pit to the west and a late 20th-century flat felt roof to the pit to the east. A forestair to the north has concrete treads and painted metal balustrade.