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Summary

Description

Robert Ewan, 1866-68; attic bedrooms added 1872, dining room and drawing room extension 1872, W wing 1894, E wing 1959; swimming pool, 1904; winter garden, 1903-5; new wing by James Denholm Associates, 1991. 4- and 5-storey with attics, (345' elevation, multi-bay) Scots-Jacobean hotel with 4-stage centre tower and winter garden with 2-storey verandah. Red squared and snecked rubble, some bull-faced, with contrasting ashlar dressings. Raised base and eaves courses. Tabbed margins; conical- and pyramidal-roofed turrets; corbels. Stone transoms and mullions.

NW (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: variety of elements to mostly symmetrically-fenestrated, stepped elevation, including: broad 3-bay centre with modern timber doorpiece, flanking marble pilasters and traditional classically-detailed plasterwork frieze with glazed canopy on decorative cast-iron brackets and smaller canopy to right giving way to flat-roofed 1st floor bays with decoratively-astragalled canted centre windows and set-back tower (see below). Flanking 3-bays gables with keystoned segmental-headed windows in gableheads and lower 2-bay wings beyond with pedimented dormerheaded windows. Single storey crenellated, harled wing in re-entrant angle to right. Advanced outer wings, that to right includes pedimented wide-centre tripartite over consoled doorpiece (altered to window) and timpany gable, full-height bowed tripartite window and gable with turret on left return. 3-bay wing to left with flanking turrets, centre gable and 3 narrow round-headed lights to bowed window in broad gable on right return, later wing set-back to outer left.

TOWER: 1st stage (ground and 1st floor) see above, 2nd stage with bipartite window to NW giving way to 2 closely-aligned windows above, 2 vertically-aligned narrow lights to SW, blank to NE and engaged to SE. 3rd stage with corbelled outer angles, banded cill course and bipartite window with hoodmould incorporating relief-carved monogrammed panel to each face, that to NW with 'SHECL' (see Notes) and '1868'. Corbel table and cornice above give way to 4th stage with stepped parapet and blind oculus to each face, and finialled, ogee-roofed, square-section angle turrets with narrow openings except that to SW with belfry, flagpole at centre.

SE ELEVATION: variety of elements to rambling stepped elevation including regular fenestration and pedimented dormer windows. Centre bays flanked by projecting wings linked by winter garden with projecting polygonal centre bays, cast-iron arcading and verandah.

Mainly 4-pane and plate glass glazing patterns in timber sash and case windows. Grey slates. Coped ashlar stacks with polygonal cans. Ashlar-coped skews with moulded skewputts

INTERIOR: decorative plasterwork cornicing; decoratively-tiled dadoes to W wing 1st and 2nd floors; dog-leg staircase with decorative cast-iron balusters and timber handrail. Drawing room with fine coloured glass depicting various Perthshire scenes, marble fireplace and pipe organ (see Notes). Ballroom with trabeated ceiling and dado panelling. Ground floor ladies washroom with timber toilet cubicles and inset Art Nouveau leaded coloured glass, similar glazing to window. Pool room lined with glazed bricks.

GATEPIERS AND BOUNDARY WALLS: coped rubble boundary walls with 2 pairs of polygonal painted ashlar gatepiers, inner piers with ironwork lanterns.

Statement of Special Interest

Group with Westerleigh and Lodge House. Formerly listed as 'Strathearn House, (Hydropathic) Ewanfield'. The Strathearn Hydropathic Establishment Company, Limited, founded by Dr Thomas Henry Meikle, was opened on 7th August, 1868. The architect hailed from Aberdeen, and was a director of Crieff Hydropathic, he later lived at Old Cathcart, Glasgow and died in 1917. Building costs amounted to more than ?24,600 (Christie), but Groome gives ?30,000. Masonry work was carried out by Alex Stuart of Aberdeen; slating by A Drysdale & Son, Crieff; Joinery by Messrs J Kidd & Son, Dundee; and marble mantelpieces by J Bruce & Son, Perth. The Turkish baths were open by September, 1872 and already improved by 1873. With 60 acres of cultivated gardens, The Hydro has been described as a "cross between a boarding school and theological training house" (Christie, p4), but by 1896 was receiving nearly 6000 visitors annually. The pipe organ in the Drawing room was donated by Mrs Agnes Paton Meikle (wife of the founder) in 1900. During its first 40 years there were almost as many patients as guests, and smoking was not permitted until 1926. Strathearn House was not used by the military during World War I but was not so fortunate in World War II. A 'Re-Opening Notice' of April, 1949 boasted "lifts to all floors,... hot and cold water in each bedroom", and that "A number of bedrooms are equipped with Post Office telephones" (Wilton, p26).

References

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