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Summary

Description

Circa 1828 with later alterations, including 1965 redevelopment. 2-storey and part attic, fine austere classical 3-bay villa with single storey pavilions; centre of themed and linked group of 3. Lightly droved sandstone ashlar, squared and coursed sandstone with ashlar dressings to sides and rear. Base and blocking courses, eaves cornice.

S (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: taller pedimented 2-storey and attic bay recessed to centre, flanked by lower advanced 2-storey bays with block pediments. Bowed stone porch set in recessed centre with entablature and blocking course; tripartite entrance with dividing fluted Doric columns; 2-leaf timber panelled doors with plate glass fanlight. Regular fenestration in recessed panels in remaining bays, that to centre segmental-headed.

N (REAR) ELEVATION: pedimented 3-storey bay to centre with 2-storey with piend-roofed canted window (modern French door to ground floor) and tripartite window in pedimented gable above. Decorative wrought-iron balcony at 1st floor level. Regular fenestration in recessed panels in flanking bays.

E & W ELEVATIONS: flanking wings have piended roofs to front (S), pedimented gables to rear, facing W and E.

INTERIORS: classic black marble diningroom chimneypiece in centre ground floor room. Photographs taken in 1966 in NMRS

Timber lying-pane glazing pattern to sash and case windows on S elevation, plate glass to centre window at 1st floor; plate glass in timber sash and case windows to rear. Graded grey slates. Low wallhead stacks with circular cans.

BOUNDARY WALLS, RAILINGS, GATES AND GATEPIERS: low ashlar walls to front with base course, ashlar coping. High coursed sandstone rubble wall with arched coping to Lower Granton Road. Later decorative wrought-iron railings, designed 1913 (see Notes), gates and paired cast-iron gateposts. Walls and railings continuous across 3 villas.

Statement of Special Interest

B Group comprises Manor House (17 Boswall Road), Boswall House (19 Boswall Road) and Forthview House (21 and 23 Boswall Road - formerly Wardiebank House), forming together a quasi-Baroque composition, spectacularly sited on the edge of the raised beach overlooking the Forth. Battered retaining wall runs along the edge of the slope to the N of all 3 properties. The linking flat-roofed pavilions (whose fenestration has suffered several alterations) may have been built later, as the villas are shown as 3 separate blocks on the 1828 PO Directory map. The linking flat-roofed pavilions (whose fenestration has suffered several alterations) may have been built later, as the Post Office Directories map shows the villas as 3 separate blocks. However, the linking pavilions are clearly present on Johnstone's very accurate map of 1851, and the PO maps continue to show 3 separate blocks util 1860.

An entry in the Edinburgh Evening Courant of August 15th 1836 may give a clue to the architect of these villas. Captain JD Boswall advertises that his lands 'of Windstrawlee and Wardie... are to be fued for every description of Villa, double or single Houses, shops and such other buildings as the increasing trade and intercourse by steam navigation may require, on the establishment of the great steam packet landing place (at Granton).... Lithographic plans are in preparation,' by Dicksons Architects, 9 Blenheim Place. Although this date is too late for the Wardie villas, stylistic resemblances with Dicksons' Gardner's Crescent and Leith Town Hall can be discerned.

The ornamental railings extending along the frontage of Manor House, Boswall House and Forthview House came originally from the RMS Aquitania, built by John Brown and Co Ltd for the Cunard Steamship Company in 1913. Illustrations in THE SHIPBUILDER, June, 1913, show the ironwork in the lounge, restaurant and staircase, and the present garden gates as elevator gates. Sir JD Pollock, who owned Manor, Boswall and Forthview Houses from c1920 until his death in 1962, was the owner of a ship-breaking company which became Metal Industries Ltd. The Aquitania was not retired until 1949, but she was requisitioned in both World Wars, so it is possible that the ornamental ironwork was removed at an earlier date. Pollock (also donor of Pollock Halls and other University properties), lived in Manor House, while Boswall and Forthview Houses were used as the Pollock Missionary Residencies.

Manor House, Boswall House and Forthview House were developed in 1965 by Broadland Properties (architects Walter Duns of Duns, Berwickshire), their intention being to convert the houses into 12 flats (Scotsman 30.6.65), with the addition of garages and mews flats to the E. Not all the subdivision was carried out, and Manor House has since returned to single ownership.

References

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