Gosford House

Gosford House is a classical double-pile mansion designed by Robert Adam in 1790, built for the Earls of Wemyss and March in East Lothian. It stands two storeys over a basement and is constructed in polished yellow ashlar throughout, with a base course, channelled basement, impost course, full entablature with moulded cornice, and a blocking course with balustraded sections and decorative urns. Windows to the principal floors have moulded architraves and are either lugged or pedimented.

In 1891, architect William Young replaced Adam's original flanking pavilions with Baroque pavilion wings, reorientated the main entrance to the south, and added arcaded loggias to the east and west elevations.

East Elevation

The east elevation was Adam's original entrance front. Its seven-bay centre features a broad balustraded staircase leading to a central doorway beneath a Doric portico with entablature, four urns, and a cupola. The doorway is round-arched with a panelled cast-iron door with glazed upper panels and narrow flanking windows, with three windows above at first-floor level. Young's 1891 arcaded loggia, barrel-vaulted, occupies the basement level, with flanking steps and balustrade. Two bays flank the doorway, each with windows to both floors. The broad outer bays are advanced and feature tripartite windows to each floor, pilastered with an entablature to the principal floor and a small pediment to the centre at first-floor level. The frieze is decorated with triglyphs and four paterae. A tablet above the centre bears a swag and oval patera crowned by recumbent lions flanking an armorial with a lion rampant bearing a swan crest. Sphinxes surmount the outer bays. A leaded dome rises on a corniced, balustraded polygonal base with urns and an ironwork crown.

West Elevation

The west elevation has three broad bays to the centre block, with flanking pavilions. A barrel-vaulted arcaded loggia to the basement matches that on the east, and is accompanied by statues. Giant fluted Corinthian pilasters divide the full-height bays of the principal apartments, with paired columns flanking the advanced and pedimented centre bay. A band course with guilloche relief runs above three large round-arched windows with tripartite screens and Ionic columnar mullions. The frieze bears an inscription and date, with a profile in the tympanum.

Linking Bays and Pavilions

The linking bays and pavilions are Young's work of 1891. Single-storey recessed blocks with basements connect the Adam mansion to the pavilions, each with a Venetian window to the principal floor and double stairs terminating the loggia to the west. The pavilions are composed of interlocked single- and two-storey blocks with basement, each crowned with a balustrade. East and west elevations have three bays with a two-storey advanced centre bay; fenestration includes Venetian windows set in round-arched panels to the principal floor. The cornice runs continuously with the single-storey linking bays and serves as a cill course to the first floor. Swagged roundel panels appear to each pilaster-quoined first-floor angle. The flanking bays have consoled and balustraded balconies to pedimented windows.

South (Entrance) Pavilion

The south elevation of the entrance pavilion has a keystoned round-arched doorway set within a segmentally pedimented Doric-columned portico with an open and broken pediment cradling a cartouche. At ground level is a vestibule with a balcony above. Three recessed first-floor bays feature keystoned Venetian windows with Ionic columnar mullions, divided by Ionic pilasters and flanked by paired pilasters. An aedicule breaks the blocking course at centre, containing a blind Venetian window with a shell niche, ornate carving, an inscription, paterae, and swags in the fronting frieze. The single-storey outer bays each have a Venetian window at first-floor level with consoled ashlar balconies to the centre light and paired Ionic pilasters flanking.

North Pavilion

The north pavilion contains service ranges enclosing a square courtyard. The north elevation has blind windows. A single-storey service range lies to the west and is currently roofless. Windows are sash and case with a two-pane glazing pattern. Wallhead stacks are panelled with semi-circular ventilators. A flagpole stands over the south entrance.

Interior

The interior features fine decoration, largely by Young, though the central block suffered fire damage in 1940 and was in a damaged state when inspected in 1989.

In the south pavilion, the principal space is an imposing Marble Hall. The masons were Kirkwood of Edinburgh; structural steelwork was by Sir William Arrol of Glasgow; stone and marble were supplied by Farmer and Brindley of London; and plasterwork was by Jackson, also of London (as noted by McWilliam). The walls are of polished Caen stone with panelled pink and white Derbyshire alabaster. A balustraded double stair rises beneath a coombed ceiling with abundant fine plasterwork. There is a Cinquecento Italian chimneypiece incorporating a bronze relief panel, with niches bearing portrait busts on either side. A triple tripartite gallery screen leads to a ribbed and glazed cupola, with three skylights over the gallery.

The principal rooms retain Adamesque decoration. The vaulted basement contains service areas. Two Georgian staircases with delicate cast and wrought-iron balustrades flank the billiard room to the east, a Young addition of 1891. This space features dado panelling, paired Corinthian pilasters, heavily corniced doorcases, a coombed plasterwork ceiling with moulded cornice, and a late 19th-century billiard table remaining in situ.

Three state rooms to the north are each dominated by their fenestration. The drawing room to the south was gutted by fire in 1940 and was under repair at the time of the 1989 inspection. The saloon and dining room have mid-19th-century groin-vaulted ceilings with reeded gilt ribs. Some fine plasterwork survives in the bedchambers. The kitchen block interior to the north has been gutted.

Entrance Courtyard, Screen Walls and Garden Statuary

The entrance courtyard to the south contains a central sculpture and is enclosed by a corniced, panelled wall opening to a balustrade with gatepiers to the south, guarded by two lions couchant.

Round-arched gateways to the gardens at east and west each have an entablature and are surmounted by sphinxes. The northwest gate is of wrought iron with foliate ornament incorporating the Wemyss initial and paired coronets. A walled terrace to the west has corner pavilions echoing those of the house. A screen wall to the kitchen courtyard to the north has gateways matching those described above.

Historical Context

As originally built to Robert Adam's design, the main block had flanking pavilions linked by colonnades. The house was incomplete in 1800 and was found to suffer from damp, attributed to the use of sea sand. The wings were demolished and plans for extensive modification were submitted by Reid, Wyatt, and Smithe. However, William Burn was commissioned instead between 1830 and 1840 to rebuild an earlier house, now demolished, adjacent to the stables; plans for this work survive at RCAHMS. The 9th Earl was persuaded not to demolish the Adam shell by his son, who subsequently commissioned Young to remodel the house in the 1890s. The magnificent Marble Hall may be compared with Young's earlier Glasgow City Chambers of 1883 to 1888. Gosford operated as a hotel between the two World Wars, and a brochure from this period is held at NMRS. The central block was under repair at the time of the listing inspection, following fire damage sustained in 1940 while the house was requisitioned by the Army, compounded by extensive dry rot. The house contains a remarkable and extensive collection of paintings and porcelain.

The landscape at Gosford was laid out as pleasure grounds around 1800. According to Loudon's Encyclopaedia of Gardening, the Gosford landscape is attributed to James Ramsay, referred to there under the name Wemyss House. Loudon gives Ramsay's death as 1794; another source, Colin, gives 1800. The mausoleum and plantations appear on Forrest's Map of 1799, and Ainslie produced a survey plan of The Pleasure Grounds of Gosford in 1808.

The Baroque north and west lodges, Young's east lodge, the Mausoleum, Boat House, Ice House, Curling House, Walled Garden, Gardener's accommodation, and the stables to the east are all listed separately, as are the principal estate farms at Harelaw and Craigielaw. Gosford House with its screen walls and garden statuary forms a listed group with the Icehouse, Curling House, Boat House, Hungary House, Bothy Cottage, Game Larders, Gardener's Cottage, Mausoleum, North Lodge, Footbridges, Ha-Ha and Aqueduct, Stables, and Walled Garden, together with Gosford Gateway, West Lodge, and Policy Walls listed in Gladsmuir Parish.