Longcroft House, Longcroft Gardens, Linlithgow

Longcroft House is a 2-storey asymmetrical rectangular-plan gabled villa, probably designed by David Bryce around 1850, with additions made circa 1868. The house is constructed of squared and stugged cream sandstone rubble, coursed on the north elevation, with polished ashlar dressings and canted windows finished in ashlar. It features a deep-overhanging eaves and a distinctive 3-stage square Italianate tower positioned to the south-west.

The north (entrance) elevation is composed of taller bays on the left side, with an advanced gabled and squared bay featuring tripartite windows, corbelled 1st floor detail, and shoulders below the eaves. A single storey gabled porch extends to the outer right, with a panelled door set within lugged architraves stepped over a blank panel, wooden pendant brackets supporting the overhanging eaves, and a window to the left. The 1st floor is recessed with two dormerheaded windows. A lower wing extends to the right with narrow bipartite windows and a bipartite dormerheaded window above, and an advanced gabled bay with regular fenestration to the outer right.

The east (side) elevation mirrors the north elevation in its composition but without the porch bays. A single storey hexagonal conservatory addition has been built against the advanced bay, with a panelled stone base, door on the right return, and a slate polygonal roof. Blind outer lights fill the spaces beside the tripartite window above.

The south (rear) elevation is asymmetrically arranged, with a gabled bay to the outer right containing corniced canted full-height windows and a French window to the centre at ground level. A date stone below the 1st floor centre window is inscribed '186 ...', recording the circa 1868 additions. A tripartite window at ground level to the left is matched by a dormerheaded window at 1st floor level. The lower wing projects forward with a gabled bay at centre, featuring a canted corbelled oriel supported by a chamfered pier with a lead piended roof, flanked by windows at ground and 1st floor. A later rendered lean-to porch has been added to the right of the oriel, with bipartite windows at ground and 1st floor levels to the outer right.

Windows throughout the house are predominantly sash and case with 12-pane and plate glass glazing patterns. A base course of single bipartite stone mullioned windows with raised margins extends around the building, with gabled dormerheads. The roof is grey slate with prominent ashlar corniced stacks.

A single storey gabled dovecot stands at the south-east corner, with a door to the left and a projecting gabled dovecot structure featuring ledges and flight holes in its gablehead.

The tower comprises three stages, each with round-headed windows finished with keystones on the top stage. It features overhanging eaves with a piended lead roof and finial, with a stack rising to the north face.

The gatepiers are constructed of ashlar with tall panelled and corniced details, moulded banding on the plinths, and are adjoined by a low rubble wall with ashlar cope, which rises steeply to almost the level of the piers.

The property appears on the 1856 Ordnance Survey map and in a slightly elongated form on the 1896 map, confirming that significant additions were made around 1868. The house was owned by Alex Cowan & Sons of Penicuik in 1855, paper manufacturers who also owned nearby mills. It was let to Thomas Chalmers in 1858, who purchased both the house and mills in 1866.