'Anyone for tennis? (But not you)'
Life among the 'primitive purity' of the Dullatur villas
The ‘List of Works’ in Gavin Stamp’s Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson notes four properties in Dullatur, Dunbartonshire: Craigard, Hillcroft, and Stanley House in Victoria Road, Dunluce (above), Richmond House, and Woodend in Prospect Road, and Hillcroft. In fact, Hillcroft is a double villa, the northern half being Hillcroft, the southern Norwood, while Stanley House is paired with Glenside.
Ronald McFadzean, in his The Life and Works of Alexander Thomson, attributes Dunluce, Richmond House, and Woodend as by Thomson. However, Gavin Stamp tends to regard them as ‘possibly by Turnbull’, Alexander Thomson's last business partner, stating ‘the designs are more taut and coherent than his [Turnbull’s] Lenzie villas’.
Initially, the question of who designed what is down to timing: the new edition of the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland noted that ‘Dullatur Villas, on a plot of 164 acres, around the old mansions of Dykehead and Dullatur, were erected in 1875-76’1, although the first observed notice of the estate advertised as ‘to be feued for villas’ comes from March 18762. The developer was the owner of the Dullatur House estate:
Mr Lennox, who some time ago bought upwards of 85 acres of land there, together with Dullatur House, intends setting apart the greater portion of the ground for villa feus; and the new station, which is expected to be completed about the end of August, is being built for the convenience of coming residents3.
Duncan Lennox was a writer (that is, solicitor), based at 37 West George Street, Glasgow, and had purchased the estate by the end of 1872. His wife gave birth to a son at Dullatur House in late 18734.
Their construction was not uneventful. Following a storm,
At Dullatur, the new villas in the course of erection have withstood the storm; but a large wooden building, 30 yards in length, used as a hewing shed by the masons engaged at the buildings, was completely blown away5.
Background
The Dullatur development, like its contemporary at Dalmuir, owes its existence to the railway, although Dullatur House itself dates to the 1740s. A station at Dalmuir was proposed as early as 1870 when an anonymous physician responded:
I must express my surprise that such a boon has not long ago been granted to the public; for there is no more desirable situation for country villas than on the rising ground above the proposed station. The primitive purity of the atmosphere, coupled with the fact that this part of the country is completely free from the poisoning influences of smoke from public works, makes it a most desirable place for summer residence for health seekers6.
However, the Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway did not open the station until 1 March 1876, the same date as the first feuing advertisement (the station closed in 1967). By April, plans and particulars were available at Dullatur House and the offices of A G Thomson and Turnbull, 122 Wellington Street.
All of the Thomson and Turnbull properties and Victoria Terrace appear to have been taken from the Dullatur House policies (Dykehead is to the southwest of Dullatur House and not shown on the map below).
In Dalmuir, the Thomson & Turnbull villas were built on high ground to the north of the railway with a terrace to the south; in Dullatur, both the villas on high ground and Victoria Terrace on a lower platform are to the south of the railway line. The map above shows five individual villas on Prospect Road: Dunluce furthest left Woodend next, Richmond House farthest to the right. On Victoria Road, Craigard is the villa to the southeast of the small Dullatur House lodge, and opposite Craigard is the double villa of Hillcroft to the north and Norwood to the south. Stanley House/Glenside, another double villa, is southeast of Norwood.
Between 1896, when the first large-scale Ordnance Survey map of the area was drawn up, and 1957, the only changes in the area were minor: the demolition of a small greenhouse, the creation of the tennis court for the Dullatur Tennis Club and the conversion of a nearby former villa into its clubhouse (now converted back to private accommodation).
A month after the storms of February 1877, it was reported at a dinner for Cumbernauld natives resident in Glasgow that
Thirteen new villas are in the course of erection; some are nearly ready for occupancy, and, owing to his perseverance and influence, we have placed down at Dullatur one of the finest stations on the North British Railway7.
A week later, the first villa was advertised for sale, with ‘three public rooms, eight bedrooms, billiard-room, kitchen, two servants’ rooms, laundry, lavatory, bath-room, etc. for entry by the end of May’. By then, villas of ‘7, 8, and 9 Rooms, etc., with Gardens, Hot Water’ were being offered for sale or rent8.
A year later, Victoria Terrace and the two double villas had been completed, being offered for sale in February 1878, with four bedrooms in the terrace houses and nine apartments in the villas, and described as
recently erected on the most approved principles, and… finished in a first-class style. There is a plentiful supply of excellent water by gravitation, and the fittings of the Houses are … completed with all modern conveniences9.
It was builder David Clow who was advertising the properties. According to the ‘List of Works’, he was responsible for Thomson’s Nos. 1 and 2 Westbourne Terrace (presumably the rest of the terrace). David’s brother Andrew had previously built Thomson’s 87-97 Bath Street, and Thomson designed the now-demolished atypical tenement at 2-10 Gibson Street for him. However, there appears to be no architectural connection between Victoria Terrace and Alexander Thomson, so this could be Robert Turnbull, possibly working with someone in Thomson’s office.
Despite the healthful atmosphere, the properties took time to sell, possibly as a result of the collapse of the City of Glasgow Bank in October 1878; a year after David Clow’s advertisement, 1 Victoria Terrace was being offered at an Upset Price of £950 against construction costs of £1,200, No. 6 at £850 (versus £1,100 for building) and one of the double villas for £1300 against costs of £1,57510. By April 1879, David Clow, now based at Glenside, was offering the entire terrace of eleven properties for sale, together with the two double villas of Hillcroft / Norwood and Stanley House/Glenside: ‘Some of them are occupied and let, and the others ready for occupation and in course of being let for the ensuing year’11.
The City of Glasgow Bank failure appears to have had wider impacts: in March 1879, No. 5 Prospect Road was up for sale, with ‘Three large Public-Rooms, Six good Bed-Rooms (two with Dressing-Rooms), Nursery, Two Servants’ Bed-Rooms [with] Public and Servants’ Staircases’12. A week later, No. 4 was also for sale, and Woodend joined it in October 1879, comprising ‘three public rooms, five bedrooms, kitchen and all other conveniences’; Woodend was eventually sold by the end of the year13.
Even before the Bank failure, Duncan Lennox may have been facing problems: in August 1878, Dullatur House went up for sale, together with Richmond House, described as containing three public rooms, eight bedrooms, a billiard room, servants’ rooms and ancillary accommodation, set in an acre of ground. Lennox offered more land, together with a porter’s lodge if needed, the latter presumably the one attached to Dullatur House14.
Who designed what?
Dunluce
Dunluce is a copy of Melbourne House, Dalmuir (below), which was under construction by December 1876. Robert Turnbull proposed David Thomson as a partner in mid-1876, although not confirmed until December of that year. But this is very uncharacteristic of David Thomson’s work.
One reason for suggesting this as Alexander Thomson is the proximity of Dalmuir to Duntocher, where the manse for the Revd James Stark was being constructed at the time of Thomson’s death. Also, the chimney cans for Dunluce appear to those by Thomson for the Garnkirk Fireclay Company (The chimney cans and windows in Melbourne House appear to have been replaced, likely following damage in 1941 when the adjacent double villa of Ravenswood/Inanda was destroyed). Quite possibly, this is a late Thomson sketch or worked-up design adopted posthumously by Turnbull. Inside (below) features a simple, solid Thomson fire surround.
Richmond House
Richmond House is a strong contender as the work of Alexander Thomson. By 1976 it had fallen derelict and was demolished some time after. The retaining wall and gate piers remain, however.
Woodend
Woodend, again strongly suggestive of Thomson, appears to have been occupied until at least the 1980s. At one point (above) it became derelict, but has subsequently been fully restored.
Craigard
Craigard, in Victoria Road, appears to be basic Thomson (given the pediment and the design of the stone porch and pier) but with Turnbull, possibly David Thomson, exercising a greater influence, including the deep two-storey bay window. The house exists today as a nursery.
Stanley House / Glenside
Only the gate pier and chimney cans (here for more detail) betray any influence by Thomson on the exterior design of this otherwise rather ordinary pair of villas,
Hillcroft / Norwood
This pair of villas appears to be a more freewheeling take on a Thomson original, with the more ornate gate piers, the curiously angled chimney stacks and the incised ornament (seen in more detail here). The finial on top of Norwood’s tower room is different from that seen on the roof of Craigard, but might suggest that David Clow was also responsible for building that villa as well, and therefore some involvement of Turnbull and David Thomson in the design of this building as well.
Social life
Despite the upheaval initially affecting the sale of the various properties, the background and social life of the occupants from the late 19th century onwards was firmly that of an upper middle class. Where one house obtained prizes in gardening competitions for its cauliflowers, another bred prize-winning Wyandotte chickens. More marriages and deaths than births seem to be recorded in the press of the period, perhaps reflecting that much of the population comprised families with growing or grown children, although the wife of Thomas A Marshall, of whom later, bore a son at Craigard in 188315.
In 1919, Robin Wilson, MC, the fifth son of Thomas Wilson of Dunluce, and a Lieutenant in the Australian Army, was married. His MC was earned in France, Robin having emigrated to Australia in 1910 and enrolled with the Australian forcesfuring the First World War16. Father Thomas was a well-known and prize-winning angler, who for 35 years was manager of the Coatbridge Gas Company ‘which sold the cheapest gas and paid the highest dividend of any gas company in Scotland’. When he and his wife celebrated their golden wedding, the salmon served as part of the meal had been caught by him. Thomas died at Dunluce in 1922, aged 7317.
The Wilsons were replaced by Lt-Col Charles Edward Wylde Macdonald. When he died at Dunluce in November 1933, it was noted that he was ‘the last great-grandson of Flora Macdonald’18.
The most significant social row affecting Dullatur appears to have occurred in the 1890s. Thomas A. Marshall of Craigard was friends with John Steele Wylie, a Glasgow merchant living at Richmond House. In 1890, both men, together with Wylie’s two sons, were sued for slander. Marshall was accused of having called Angus Macleod, a merchant resident at Norwood, a ‘questionable character’, a ‘swindler’, ‘liar’, ‘thief’, ‘blackguard’ and ‘poltroon’ on the grounds of Dullatur Tennis Club in front of the Club chairman. They later wrote to the Club secretary asking that Macleod be barred. In his defence, Marshall claimed that Macleod had ‘by false representations induced him to subscribe to the capital of a copper company’, and had lost his investment.
The case did not come before the court until March 1893 but was never argued, the defenders settling out of court and paying £550 plus Macleod’s legal expenses. If the episode was shaming, Marshall did not experience it for long; he died early in the following year19.
Allegedly dangerous dogs were also a cause for concern: by 1900, the Dow family had replaced the Marshalls, but in July 1901, Miss Elizabeth Dow was charged with having a dangerous dog, which had bit a local youth. She claimed it was always chained up and had been let off the leash without her permission (the member of the household staff who had done so was also charged). She claimed it was normally ‘an affectionate dog’ (although why it was therefore always chained up was never addressed). She had had the dog destroyed before appearing in court, so the case was deserted20.
John B Porteous, a manufacturing confectioner’s agent of Hillcroft, was charged in 1930 with owning a dangerous Scotch collie which had chased cattle in the nearby farm of Wester Dullatur. A shorthorn bull in one of the fields was found to have suffered a broken leg, and the dog was thought to have been to blame. However, the charge was reduced to one of a dog not being kept under proper control, since there were witnesses that the dog’s running wild had resulted in the injury21.
The 1954 marriage of Mr and Mrs Porteous’ daughter was something of a social highlight for Dullatur: she married the son of Sir John and Lady Duncanson of Rutland Gate, London. He was Managing Director of the shipbuilders Lithgows (two years later he would become embroiled in the 1956 Suez Crisis as chairman of the Suez Canal Company). Pre-empting Hello! magazine, the Falkirk Herald gushed
At the reception which followed, and which took place at Hillcroft, where a marquee had been erected in the grounds, there were 150 guests, some of them titled22.
F H Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland, Vol. II, 1882
Glasgow Herald, 1 Mar 1876
The Scotsman, 25 Jun 1875
Glasgow Herald, 2 Dec 1873
Falkirk Herald, 1 Feb 1877
Glasgow Herald, 28 Dec 1870
Falkirk Herald, 1 Mar 1877
Glasgow Herald, 5 Mar 1877, Glasgow Herald, 7 May 1877
Glasgow Herald, 22 Feb 1878
Glasgow Herald, 29 Jan 1879
Glasgow Herald, 26 Apr 1879
Glasgow Herald, 21 Mar 1879
Glasgow Herald, 26 Mar 1879; Glasgow Herald, 1 Oct 1879; Edinburgh Daily Review, 25 Dec 1879
Glasgow Herald, 23 Aug 1878
Glasgow Evening Post, 2 Jul 1883
Northern Whig, 22 Apr 1919
Sunday Post, 12 Mar 1922.
Kirkintilloch Gazette 8 Aug 1924
The Scotsman, 3 Nov 1890
Kirkintilloch Herald, 24 Jul 1901
Kirkintilloch Herald, 25 Jun 1930
Falkirk Herald, 26 Jun 1954