Description
Circa 1857. House built of brick in Georgian style for John Grieve of Preston Lodge, owner of Bankpark Pottery (see notes); two-storey double pile main block with flanking single storey pavilions, set within large brick walled garden, with carriage house and greenhouses to SE and lodge at SE gate. Nursery plantation to N also enclosed by walls.
HOUSE: white painted brick with brick voussoired flat-arch openings brick base course, bank course, dentilled cornice, blocking course, grey slates to platformed double pitched roof with twin corniced brick stacks with decorative cans at the gables.
FRONT (NW) ELEVATION: central pilastered tripartite doorway inset within fanlight arch, 4-panelled door. Tripartites flanking at ground floor, 3 windows at 1st floor, later plate glasss sashes. Flanking single storey, single bay wings each with single window to front, cornice and blocking course, piended slated roofs.
REAR (SE) ELEVATION: central tall stair window at intermediate level. Windows to outer bays at ground and 1st floor. Single window at left-hand pavilion, brick gateway adjoining to S with depressed arched overthrow inset with pilasters and wrought-iron gates. Door at right-hand pavilion with decorative wrought-iron gates. Door at right-hand pavilion with decorative wrought-iron bars behind glass. Vehicular gateway adjoining, corniced gatepiers supporting wrought-iron overthrow with lamp, adjoining carriage house and garage range to E.
INTERIOR: tripartite screen door to hall. Drawing Room to left at ground; chimney-piece replaced circa 1930, retains original plasterwork. Dining Room to right has fine walnut neo Georgian Doric pilastered chimney-piece at c 1910 with outstanding steel register and grate, very fine classical oval relief. Decorative 1930's light fittings. Stone stair with original cast-iron balusters. Some Edwardian light fittings to bedrooms and circa 1910 chimney-pieces. Upstairs bathrooms retain 1930's Art Deco blue fittings and vitrolite to walls.
CARRIAGE HOUSE AND GARAGE to E: tall brick carriage house with loft, formerly with courtyard walls, later raised in the 1930's to form garage with large boarded doors and decorative brick panel above. Extensive GREENHOUSES adjoining to S: brick foundations, iron and timber framed.
Air-raid shleter survives in garden to W of house.
LODGE: early 20th century single storey, 3-bay lodge at SE gate; harled, grey slates, corniced stacks. Central door with bracketted cornice flanking, tripartite windows with timber mullions plate glass sashes.
GATES AND GATEPIERS: E and W gates to Edinburgh Road; pair of brick piers to E with foliate wrought iron gates; similar to W but here with quadrant walls and piers.
Extensive brick GARDEN WALLS to main road, and enclosing garden.
Nursery plantation to N.
Statement of Special Interest
Bankpark House was built circa 1857 for John Grieve who owned the Bankpark Pyropalite Works, Prestonpans, and is of considerable interest as a house built entirely of brick from the pottery, in an old-fashioned Georgian style. The pottery was sited to the N of the house, and bricks made there were used to build the house and associated buildings.
Grieve founded the property in the late 1840's and it was in production until the turn of the century. The Name Book of 1849 gives details of the pottery; "it is a large Pottery and Brick Works where large quantities of bricks, flower pots and earthenware are manufactured. Tiles are sometimes made at it, seldom, but only in small quantities.
It is the property of John Grieve of "Preston Lodge". Bankpark House does not appear on the 1st edition OS Map. The 1894 Name Book mentions that "vases and statuary" were also made there; 2 garden statues of standing figures bearing the Bankpark Pottery stamp have been located in a garden formerly belonging to David Ramsay Hay in Edinburgh. The house was sold in the early 20th century to the Wilson family who purchased additional land to the N and lived in the house until the death of Dr Jessie Wilson