Liberton House, Liberton Drive, Edinburgh

Liberton House, Liberton Drive, Edinburgh

A substantial laird's house dating from circa 1600, built to an L-plan with two storeys and attic. The building has undergone complex alterations and additions spanning the late 17th century, circa 1890, and a major intervention by Rowand Anderson, Paul and Partners in 1936, which removed a Georgian attic floor and reinstated cat-slide dormers throughout. Further alterations were carried out by Nicholas Groves-Raines, Architects in 1995 following a severe fire in 1991 that destroyed the roof and main wing.

The main range runs to the south-east, with a three-storey wing built on falling ground at right angles to the south-west. A round stair tower sits in the re-entrant angle to the north-west. A lower single-storey and attic wing adjoins to the west, and a two-storey service wing abuts to the north-west, forming a courtyard.

The exterior is harled and lime-washed (reharled in 1995), with red sandstone ashlar margins featuring rounded arrises and gunloops. The east and north-facing gables are crowstepped (renewed in 1936). Windows are timber sash and case with predominantly 12-pane glazing. The steeply pitched roof is covered in graded grey slates with coped harled stacks.

North-West Elevation: A doorway to the left of the stair turret has a roll-moulded surround with an armorial panel above. A dormer lights the stair window above. Windows at ground and first floor are positioned to the left. The stair tower corbels to square at second-floor level, with a window at each floor and a crowstepped gable restored circa 1890. The wing to the right has a doorway at ground level and two windows above at each floor. The lower, possibly later single-storey and attic wing adjoining to the right has a door and window at ground floor, and a window breaking the eaves at attic level. This wing features a pedimented dormerhead dated 1675 in a carved panel, rehoused from the north-west range circa 1890.

North-East Elevation: Windows at each floor. A circa 1890 rubble lean-to single-storey and attic addition features crowsteps and a pedimented dormerhead.

South-East Elevation: Facing the garden, three tall windows at ground floor have 18-pane glazing. An ashlar canted bow addition of circa 1840 stands to the right, topped with a slated pyramidal roof and French windows. A window at first floor sits above the bow, with three windows to the left breaking the eaves in cat-slide dormers and three further dormers above to the attic. A wall-mounted angle sundial with tabular dials and an armorial is set into the quoins to the south-west; the shield is flanked by initials "WL" and dated 1683.

South-West Elevation: Two windows at ground floor within the gable, with a window at each floor above to the left. The adjoining wing has two windows to each floor, not symmetrically placed, with one pedimented dormerhead dated 1605 at second-floor level.

Interior

The main interior space is a great hall of considerable height (unvaulted), accessed from an original entrance door guarded by a sliding wooden bar. The hall features three tall windows in round-headed openings facing south-east, the centre of which is modern and occupies a former buffet recess. Two smaller deeply recessed windows face south-west, flanking a red sandstone columned chimneypiece with a deep blank frieze. A segmentally-arched buffet recess occupies the north-west wall, with another adjoining room featuring a bow now used as the kitchen. The original kitchen is positioned in the north-west jamb at a slightly lower level, remodelled circa 1890 with a tiled fireplace originally flanked by two windows; the window to the right has been enlarged to a door. Panelled window surrounds and a beamed timber ceiling bear a signature on the palette by painter A W Lyons (1892), decorated with heraldic ornament. A doorway to the north-east retains a heavy iron yett. A stone spiral stair off the great hall provides access to upper floors, which retain later 17th-century chimneypieces. The south-east room contains Delft tiles inset, probably of later date, and some painted wall decoration survives in fragments at first-floor level. Timber boarded doors with studs (19th century) are distributed throughout.

The north-west range functions as an office but was originally a single-storey and attic service wing, possibly a bakehouse and brewhouse. A door to the courtyard has a resited lintel inscribed "William 1570 Litil" and a (probably 19th-century) carved armorial panel in a heavily roll-moulded frame. Windows flank the door at ground floor, with three windows to the attic floor breaking the eaves in cat-slide dormers. Three windows serve the rear at each floor, with two dormers to the attic. Evidence of a large fireplace for a range survives at ground floor. At first-floor level stands a large timber-panelled room with massive A and C timberwork, probably a late 19th-century billiard room, now in office use. A single-storey workshop range adjoins to the north.

Setting and Ancillary Structures

To the north-east of the house stands a walled garden enclosed partly by rubble walls. A yett serves as the gate from the service courtyard, with two gatepiers topped by large granite caps. Rubble garden walls also extend parallel to the driveway to the north-east, with bee boles visible in the south-east wall.

At the entrance from Liberton Drive stand gatepiers, quadrant walls, and gates. The rubble coped quadrant walls are flanked by a pair of polygonal ashlar gatepiers with corniced caps and ball finials, probably of late 19th-century date. Contemporary wrought-iron gates feature an "LH" motif.