- Holmwood House
caption=
name=Holmwood House
location_town=Glasgow
location_country=Scotland
architect=Alexander Thomson
client=James Couper
construction_start_date=1857
completion_date=1858
cost=£3,682
structural_system=masonry
style=Greek Revival| Holmwood House is the finest and most elaborate residential villa designed by Scottisharchitect Alexander Thomson .It is also rare in retaining much of its original interior decor, and being open to the public.The villa is located at 61-63 Netherlee Road,Cathcart in the southern suburbs ofGlasgow .Holmwood is considered to be immensely influential by several architectural historians, because the design as published in
Robert Blackie 's "Villa and Cottage Architecture" in 1868 may have influencedFrank Lloyd Wright and other proto-modernist architects.Holmwood was constructed for James Couper, a paper manufacturer in 1857-1858. Couper owned the Millholm paper mill in the valley of the
White Water of Cart immediately below the villa. The principal rooms of Holmwood were orientated towards the view of Cathcart Castle (demolished in 1980). The cost of the house was £2,608:4:11d; the stable, green house & outbuildings cost a further £1,009:19:6d; and the gates an additional £75:2:0dThe
polychromatic 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. After
World War II it was occupied by theSisters of Our Lady of the Missions who obliterated much of the original decoration with plain paint. The gardener's cottage demolished 1970s as the grounds and those of an adjacent villas 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 the
National Trust for Scotland in 1994 with the support of £1.5million from theNational Heritage Memorial Fund . It was restored byPage and Park architects in 1997-1998. Their work included undoing the 1920s alterations and rebuilding the connecting wall.External links
* [http://www.ntseducation.org.uk/students/case-holmwood.html Detailed history on National Trust for Scotland Education website]
* [http://www.nts.org.uk/Property/31/ Holmwood visitor details on National Trust for Scotland general website]
* [http://www.scotcities.com/thomson/holmwood.htm Alexander Thomson's Holmwood House ] Features renderings and photographs of Holmwood House.
* [http://www.inglasgow.com/inglaig/gallery.asp?categoryid=88 Photographs of Holmwood House, Glasgow]
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