Marchmont House

Marchmont House

Thomas Gibson designed this substantial country house between 1750 and 1754 as a symmetrical classical composition in the H-plan form. The main block comprises two storeys over a basement with nine bays arranged as grouped 1-7-1. Flanking pavilions—a kitchen to the left and stables to the right—are single-storey rectangular structures linked to the house by concave screen walls. The building has undergone significant alterations: William Burn made modifications in 1834, while Sir Robert Lorimer undertook a major remodelling between 1914 and 1920. Late in the 20th century, the house was converted to a residential home, and it subsequently became a Sue Ryder Home.

The external walls are built primarily of cream sandstone rubble, pointed with tooled mortar and partly coursed and squared at basement level. Sandstone ashlar dressings include rusticated quoins, raised keystones to lower openings, and lugged ashlar margins to upper floors with stylised lintel motifs. A base course runs around the building, with a raised band course marking the principal floor and an ashlar eaves course beneath the corniced eaves. Urn-shaped finials crown the main house and ball-shaped finials the flanking pavilions.

The north-east entrance elevation presents a three-bay porch at ground level with consoled keystones aligned above round-arched openings and a balustraded parapet. A two-leaf timber panelled door is set centrally behind. The piano nobile features a single window in a corniced doorpiece centred above the porch, accompanied by a cartouche and carved swags beneath. A box dormer surmounts this opening, and a classically detailed, ogee-roofed cupola with ball-finials and a wind vane is centred behind on the roof. The bays flanking the centre are regularly fenestrated across all floors. Full-height outer projections, recessed to the outer left and right, contain single windows at ground level and tripartite windows at piano nobile, the latter with narrow side-lights, pilastered mullions, balustraded aprons, and scrolled pediments. Carved swags flank single windows aligned above, with box dormers surmounting each. Later full-height bays recessed further to the outer extremities contain single windows at both floors to the left and a single upper-floor window to the right. Lower corridors set behind balustraded screen walls link the house and outer pavilions. Each pavilion displays a single-storey screen wall to the front with a central round-arched niche and flanking single windows. Square-headed doorways are recessed into lower balustraded bays to the left and right of each pavilion, with taller blocks set behind containing central round-arched wallhead stacks.

The south-east elevation features an irregularly fenestrated two-storey pavilion with basement advanced to the right, housing the kitchen, with a single-storey flat-roofed addition offset to the right of centre. A segmental-arched opening in a single-storey infill recessed to the outer right is set behind a ball-finialled screen. The main house is recessed to the left with an external stair to the left of centre and blind oval niches between the piano nobile and upper floor. Box dormers surmount these openings.

The south-west rear elevation displays the main block with a perron stair accessing a corniced entrance centred in the piano nobile. Single windows occupy all floors in the bays to left and right, with surmounting box dormers. An ogee-roofed cupola is centred behind. Full-height outer projections contain single windows at basement and Venetian windows above, the latter fitted with balustraded aprons and pilastered mullions, with single windows aligned at upper floors and surmounting box dormers. A small single window occupies a full-height bay recessed to the right. Single-storey corridors with basements link the taller pavilions to the main block: a three-bay corridor to the outer right with round-arched windows at upper floor and single windows in all bays, and a four-bay corridor to the outer left with similar fenestration.

The north-west elevation shows the music room pavilion advanced to the left with single windows in both bays at ground level and irregular fenestration at basement. A central round-arched wallhead stack is present. The main house is recessed to the right with single openings at all floors and a blind oval niche to the outer right between piano nobile and upper floor, topped by a box dormer.

Windows throughout are glazed with timber sash and case frames containing 12- and 20-pane glazing. The roof is finished with grey slate on a platformed mansard and fitted with lead flashings. Corniced sandstone chimney stacks of various designs carry circular cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods, dated 1915 to the front, serve the roof.

Early alterations included the removal of the external entrance stair in the early 20th century. Lorimer's 1914–20 remodelling substantially reshaped the building: the basement was lowered, an arcaded porch was added to form a new entrance, the squat upper windows were enlarged, full-height single-bay recessed additions were inserted to the outer left and right, an attic storey was formed within a new mansard roof, and the flanking pavilions were raised and linked by corridors. The stable block was converted into a music room.

Interior spaces retain the majority of their original fabric, with good examples of 18th, 19th, and 20th-century work. The entrance hall contains Lorimer's reinforced concrete dogleg stair set offset to the right of centre, fitted with iron balustrades featuring foliate and floral panels between plain uprights, designed by Thomas Hadden. Painted, panelled walls line the stair-well, decorated with plaster frames surrounding sporting and musical motifs by Beattie, a decorative frieze, and an intricately carved circular ceiling detail with a central light fitting and outer compartments.

The principal reception rooms occupy the piano nobile and feature boarded timber floors, decorative plaster friezes, cornices and ceilings (those in the drawing room and saloon are 18th-century work, possibly by Thomas Clayton), and panelled walls. Timber panelled doors are positioned throughout, with lugged-panel examples replaced by Lorimer. Architraved, corniced, carved, and lugged door surrounds vary in treatment. The majority of fireplaces remain intact. The drawing room features a marble surround with a sunburst motif, surmounted by a painting of the 1st Earl of Marchmont by William Aikman in a mirrored frame integral with the fireplace. The morning room contains a classical surround with caryatids.

The main floor lobby is offset to the left of centre, marking the position of the original stair, and is lit by an oval skylight set within a balustraded balcony. Regularly spaced Ionic columns support a glazed cupola above. A groin-vaulted corridor links the house to the music room, its whitewashed walls decorated with carved ashlar springers and blind circular niches centred in arches with consoled supports at the base of each.

The music room, nearly double-cube in proportion, is Lorimer's creation. It features grey oak wainscoting and a fireplace centred in the north-west wall with flanking giant-order fluted pilasters and a lugged central panel. The north-east wall houses an organ by W & A Clow, centred between giant-order fluted pilasters with a carved parapet surmounted by celestial musicians (by Pilkington Jackson) and pierced panels. Fawns linked by carved swags, modelled by Louis Deuchars, surmount the design. A combed ceiling displays intricate plasterwork comprising a central wreath flanked by square compartments. Beneath the music room lies a sparsely detailed Roman Catholic Chapel, which was opened in 1938.

Garden features include low, balustraded sandstone walls to the rear with architraved coping and squat square-plan newels, together with stone stairs linking differing levels. A sandstone sundial centred at the rear has an octagonal table on a balustered shaft and octagonal base, though the dial and metal gnomons are missing.