| Holmwood House | |
|---|---|
 Holmwood House | |
 | |
| General information | |
| Architectural style | Greek Revival |
| Town or city | Glasgow |
| Country | Scotland |
| Construction started | 1857 |
| Completed | 1858 |
| Cost | £3,682 |
| Client | James Couper |
| Technical details | |
| Structural system | masonry |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect(s) | Alexander Thomson |
Listed Building – Category A | |
| Official name | 61, 63 Netherlee Road, "Holmwood" |
| Designated | 17 June 1967 |
| Reference no. | LB33944 |
Holmwood House is the finest and most elaborate residential villa designed by the Scottish architectAlexander "Greek" Thomson. It is also rare in retaining much of its original interior decor, and being open to the public. ACategory A listed building, the villa is located at 61–63 Netherlee Road,Cathcart, in the southern suburbs ofGlasgow, and is owned by theNational Trust for Scotland.
Holmwood is considered to be immensely influential by several architectural historians, because the design as published inVilla and Cottage Architecture: select examples of country and suburban residence recently erected in 1868[1] may have influencedFrank Lloyd Wright and other proto-modernist architects.
Holmwood was constructed for James Couper, a paper manufacturer in 1857–1858. Couper and his brother Robert owned the Millholm paper mill in the valley of theWhite Water of Cart immediately below the villa. The principal rooms of Holmwood were orientated towards the view ofCathcart Castle (demolished in 1980). The cost of the house was £2,608:4:11d; the coach house, greenhouse & outbuildings cost a further £1,009:19:6d; and the gates an additional £75:2:0d
Thepolychromatic decoration was designed by Thomson and executed byCampbell Tait Bowie. The most notable survival is in the dining room which has a frieze of panels enlarged fromJohn Flaxman's illustrations ofHomer'sIliad. The sculpture on the hall chimneypiece was byGeorge Mossman.
Holmwood was altered in the 1920s by the owner, James Gray. AfterWorld War II it was purchased by a local vet, James McElhone and his family, wife Betty and children: Rosemary, James, Helen and Paul. Holmwood was then sold to theSisters of Our Lady of the Missions who obliterated much of the original decoration with plain paint. The gardener's cottage was demolished in the 1970s; the grounds and those of an adjacent villa were used for a Catholic primary school.
The nuns put the property on the market in the early 1990s, and there was a danger that the grounds would be developed for housing, destroying the setting of the villa. Following an appeal, Holmwood was acquired by theNational Trust for Scotland in 1994 with the support of £1.5million from theNational Heritage Memorial Fund.[2] It was restored byPage\Park Architects in 1997–1998. Their work included undoing the 1920s alterations and rebuilding the connecting screen wall to the coach house.Patrick Baty carried out the paint analysis.
In 1999, theClydesdale Bank issued a £20 note to mark Glasgow's celebrations as UK City of Architecture and Design which featured an illustration of the dome of Holmwood House, along with theLighthouse building on the reverse. The obverse side carried a portrait of Thomson.[3]
A second 'Holmwood' was constructed in 1885 for the wealthy mining magnate, benefactor and politician,William Austin Horn, atNorth Walkerville,Adelaide.[4] The house was built posthumously from Thomson designs published inVilla and Cottage Architecture: select examples of country and suburban residence recently erected byBlackie & Son Publishing in 1868.[1] This published work also included other Thomson designs, including hisRomanesque Craig Ailey Villa atCove on theFirth of Clyde.[5] Although Holmwood was based on Thomson's designs and closely resembles Holmwood House, modifications were made to the internal design making the room layouts significantly different.[4]
55°48′35″N4°15′34″W / 55.8097°N 4.25936°W /55.8097; -4.25936
