Langlees House

Langlees House

A roughly Z-plan Scots 17th-century revival country house designed by George Washington Browne in 1890-1, with later additions and alterations extending to 1964.

The original house comprises a 2-storey and attic L-plan structure featuring a semi-octagonal entrance tower, a 2-storey canted bay window, and crowstepped gables. In 1899, Peddie and Washington Browne added a single-storey and attic service wing with pedimented dormer windows adjoining the north gable. In 1964, Ian G Lindsay & Partners extended the building with a 2-storey and attic addition to the east gable, forming the Z-plan, and added a bow window to the south gable. A 1964 garage and service courtyard were also constructed adjoining the service wing to the north.

The house is constructed of roughcast rendered whinstone rubble with red Corsehill sandstone ashlar dressings to the 19th course. Window margins are in flush sandstone, except to the 1964 addition which has projecting sandstone cills.

The south entrance elevation features a half-glazed door in an open pedimented doorway at the base of the central octagonal entrance tower, which is surmounted by a tall finialed roof. Flanking bays have regular fenestration with pedimented dormers to the attic, and the 1964 gable projects to the outer right with a 2-storey bow window.

The west garden front comprises the original 4-bay house to the right with a 2-storey canted window to a 2-bay gable; a 2-bay service wing to the centre with pedimented dormers; and a 1964 single-storey garage and service range with steep roof and irregular fenestration to the left. The east elevation adopts an L-plan arrangement with the 1964 wing advanced to the south and an irregularly fenestrated 19th-century range to the west with pedimented dormer windows. A 1964 lean-to rubble entrance porch adjoins the west range, and a wall conceals a service courtyard extending north from the west range. A further irregularly fenestrated courtyard with boiler room and garages extends from the right gable.

Windows are 12-pane glazing in timber sash and case. Stacks are coped rendered with red clay cans. The roof is finished in graded green and grey slate.

The interior has been largely modernised in the 1960s. A cantilevered grey stone staircase with timber handrail and newel posts is fitted with decorative wrought-iron balusters. The upstairs drawing room contains a bowed recess, a decorative timber chimneypiece with white marble inset and fender, and a compartmented ceiling. Plaster cornicing, timber shutters, and timber-panelled interior doors are found throughout.

A terrace to the south and west of the house features balustraded red sandstone retaining walls with ball finials and steps.

The former stable or lodge, designed by Peddie and Washington Browne in 1899, is a single-storey and attic L-plan building with deep eaves. It is constructed of roughly snecked whinstone with red sandstone window margins and is irregularly fenestrated with pedimented dormers rising from the eaves. A half-glazed timber-boarded front door is positioned in the re-entrant angle. The north elevation has three shallow-arched lights below the eaves. Windows are predominantly 12-pane glazing in timber sash and case. Brick stacks are fitted with red clay cans, and the roof is finished in graded grey and green slates.

A former coach house or garage from the 1920s or 1930s stands opposite the lodge, constructed of random rubble with sliding timber-boarded doors. A partially walled garden extends to the north of the house. Coped rubble gatepiers and a short curved boundary wall are located by the lodge.

The property was owned by the father of Elizabeth B Mitchell, one of the first women town planners in Scotland, who made a considerable contribution to the development of East Kilbride New Town. After his death, Elizabeth Mitchell lived at Langlees from 1916 to 1964, when the property was sold to the current owners.

Ian Gordon Lindsay, who conducted the 1964 works, was highly influential in the early movement to preserve historic buildings in Scotland. During the 1930s he assisted the Marquis of Bute in drawing up lists of buildings for protection, which later formed the basis of the statutory lists. Following the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act of 1945, he was appointed Chief Investigator of Historic Buildings, a post he held whilst running his architectural practice. Langlees was probably among the last houses on which he worked before his death in 1966.