62 Eglinton Street, Beith

62 Eglinton Street, Beith – Whang House

A large and imposing classical villa of circa 1830, set back from Eglinton Street behind a low coped ashlar boundary wall with distinctive square Gothic-panelled gatepiers topped with fan motifs. The house comprises two storeys over three bays and is rendered in painted ashlar with a base course and outer pilasters supporting an entablature with mutuled cornice.

The principal front elevation displays Grecian details throughout. The central timber panelled door is set within a reeded architrave with rosettes to the corner blocks, and features a margin-paned letterbox fanlight. The doorpiece is particularly prominent, with a consoled cornice surmounted by a pediment and acroterian. Ground floor windows are corniced with reeded architraves and rosettes to corner blocks, while first floor windows have moulded architraves. The roof is finished with grey slates and a stone ridge with straight skews; the end stacks are coped ashlar without original cans.

The rear elevation displays irregular fenestration across two storeys over a basement. A central stone stair to the ground floor, with an open string and 'S' brackets, features plain cast-iron railings and handrail, leading to a two-leaf timber outer door within a corniced architrave and margin-paned letterbox fanlight. This elevation is constructed of random sandstone rubble with raised window margins.

The house was subdivided circa 1970. Original 12-pane timber sash and case windows (visible in a 1979 photograph) have been replaced throughout with ill-fitting uPVC glazing.

The interior retains much of its refined classical detailing despite some deterioration from dry rot. The hall features a partition wall dividing the symmetrical plan, with distinctive timber panelled doors of eight fields in pilastered doorcases with entablatures. Panelled recesses to left and right in the hall contain similar entablatures, and remnants of anthemion and palmette cornice survive with a consoled depressed arch. The former dining room retains a chair rail, garland frieze, and a pilastered, entablatured doorcase with panelled door of bead-moulded fields; a greyish green stone chimneypiece is set in the north wall alongside two further doors with matching doorcases. The timber Imperial stair rises from two parallel flights merging into one broad flight to the first floor, now divided. The master bedroom on the first floor features a built-in wardrobe with a pilastered, entablatured doorcase opening to four leaf panelled doors (two now mirrored), with upper panels carved with a mythical scene, and fitted drawers within. A chair rail survives in this room. A second bedroom contains a timber pilastered chimneypiece with cast-iron insert, also with a chair rail. A third bedroom has a grey marble chimneypiece with a later hearth.

To the rear stands a roofless Gothic chapel, apparently for the family's private use and possibly contemporary with the house. This single-storey structure displays five bays to the north and two to the west, with a Gothic-arched doorway and similar Gothic window openings to the west elevation. The walls are constructed of stugged and snecked sandstone with polished raised margins and an eaves course. Steps with 'S' brackets lead to the doorway.

Historical background

Eglinton Street was formerly known as the Whang or Whang Street, and the ground to the rear comprised the Whang meadows. The plot was feued in 1826 from Lady Mary Montgomerie by Robert Spier, a solicitor in Beith who owned Cuff estate and, through his marriage to Margaret Gibson, acquired the estate of Marshalland. Their son John predeceased them, but through an endowment left by John's eventual legacy, Spier's School was founded and built in 1888 (since demolished). Margaret Spier died in 1870, and the house, then known as Whang House, was purchased by Thomas Miller. The property is notably larger in scale than many contemporary villas in Eglinton Street and unusually set back from the pavement; most other houses on the street abut the pavement directly. The surviving high-quality woodwork and fashionable cornicing demonstrate that the client and builder were conversant with prevailing tastes. The building at 60 Eglinton Street (separately listed) is thought to have been used as the coachhouse for Whang House.