Tom Morris House And Golf Shop, 7-8 The Links, St Andrews

Tom Morris House and Golf Shop, 7-8 The Links, St Andrews

This is a two-storey building with an attic, arranged in three bays, comprising a shop at ground floor and a dwelling house above. It was largely designed by Archibald Downie and built by William Ness in 1882, incorporating fabric from an earlier building of 1861. The property is located opposite the 18th hole of St Andrews Links Old Golf Course and lies to the east of an irregularly arranged terraced run of townhouses, commercial properties and golf clubhouses of three or more storeys in height (9-18 The Links). The building served as both home and business premises of 'Old' Tom Morris, the internationally recognised 'father of modern golf'.

The building is constructed of squared and snecked rubble in locally sourced pale brown sandstone with ashlar skews and stop-chamfered margins. The shop (No.8) has a large three-pane window with a timber fascia above it. There are doors in the flanking bays; the door to the left provides access to a pend to the rear and access to the house above (No.7). At the first floor, the centre bay breaks the eaves into a gablehead with a small window and shouldered skewputts. There is a tripartite central window with bipartite windows flanking.

A rear wing includes a forestair and metal rail. The east gable of 1882 is of concrete over a timber beam, cantilevered out from the former garden wall. There is a masonry gate on the left to a pathway covered by a narrow pentice roof at the east gable. The concrete work was carried out by Alex MacPherson. The windows are of plate glazing in timber sash and case frames. There are tall and narrow coped ashlar chimney stacks with polygonal clay cans. The cast iron downpipes have ornamental rainwater hoppers. The roof has a grey slate covering.

The interior of the shop (No.8) includes a solid timber workbench in the window, exposed flagstone flooring marked with club manufacturing strike marks, and an exposed masonry fireplace. There is also an early timber club locker (No.1) understood to have belonged to Tom Morris. The interior of the dwelling at 7 The Links has not been inspected (as of 2021) but is understood to retain woodwork fixtures and fittings of 19th and early 20th century character.

Historical Development

The building has a long and complex history. The land was first feued for housing in long narrow strips around 1830. The building now known as 7, 8 The Links began in the 1830s as a single storey cartshed, located at the north end of the feu belonging to No.6 Pilmour Links. Notably, it was sited opposite the 18th hole of St Andrews Old Golf Course, established in the mid-18th century.

In 1832, golf club and ball maker Hugh Philp (1782-1856) reconstructed the cartshed as a single-storey workshop with a piend roof. After Philp's death, it was briefly let to his successor Robert Forgan (1852-1900). The whole of the 6 Pilmour Links property was sold to Richard Bartholomew Child (1800-82) of Henley-on-Thames in 1861. The Philp workshop was rebuilt as a two-storey house and golf shop with a gabled roof in that year and then occupied by Child's son-in-law, the clubmaker George Daniel Brown.

In 1866, the Pilmour Links property was bought by 'Old' Tom Mitchell Morris (16 June 1821 - 24 May 1908), the internationally renowned championship golfer, course designer, greensman and club maker. Initially Morris and his family lived at the associated 6 Pilmour Links, with Brown's dwelling above the workshop becoming stock rooms. His rival maker, Robert Forgan (Golf Club Makers to the Prince of Wales) lived and worked next door.

A watercolour of 1882 by Thomas Hodge shows that the building at 7, 8 The Links was two windows wide at first floor and had a pantiled roof. The ground floor (No.8 The Links) was much as it appears in 2021, with a large three-pane window lighting the surviving timber workbench within and a shop door on the right. The dwelling on the first floor was entered by the forestair to the rear of the property at that time.

In 1882-3, Tom Morris, by then a widower, had the dwelling house at No.7 reconstructed. The first floor was extended to provide an additional bedroom and scullery. The house was then occupied by Tom Morris and his sons James Ogilvie Fairlie and John Morris, while the house to the south at 6 Pilmour Links was rebuilt for Tom Morris's son-in-law James Hunter. Tom Morris was still recorded as a 'clubmaker' at 6 Pilmour Links in 1904. The feu associated with 6 Pilmour Links was divided into separate ownerships around the time of Morris's death in 1908.

In 1922 or shortly thereafter, a bathroom supported on concrete piers was added at the centre of the rear elevation, and in the late 1940s the lower section was enclosed within a single-storey wing providing additional workspace. The bathroom wing was extended again over its eastern side in 1998. The 1861 forestair with cast iron handrail still exists (as of 2021).

The building is currently in family ownership and the Tom Morris shop is sub-let (as of 2021). The shop was renovated and refurbished by the St Andrews Links Trust in 2011. As part of the work, the early 20th century 'Tom Morris' signage, as evident on engravings and drawings of the period, was reinstated. The Tom Morris shop became 'The Open' in 2018. The lower lines of the early signage lettering, dating to around 1909, survive behind the present fascia. This signage reads: 'Champion Golfers 1861-62-64-67-68-69-70-72 / Established 1848 Unbroken Family Management'.