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Busby House, Field Road, Busby, Lanarkshire
†Large addition to existing house, for Durham Kippen or for Inglis
& Wakefield, 1856-57
All demolished 1969
Measured drawings by Ronald McFadzean in
The Villas of Alexander Thomson* [Thomas Ross Prize] in RIAS Library
Law*; Worsdall; McFadzean*; S&McK*; ATSN no.6 January 1993*,
Colin McKellar in no.17 November 1996* & no.18 February 1997* (see
below)
Original house built c.1796 for Mr Kessock. In the 1850s the land was
owned by Durham Kippen, who rented it to Inglis & Wakefield who ran
the nearby calico printing works (and who were the largest tenants in
the Gordon Street warehouse, q.v., in 1872. At the 1861 Census, the
occupant was Alexander Miller, manager of the calico print works.
Thomson's additions included a bay window to the library with large
plate-glass windows like a circular temple embedded in the wall - an
idea possibly inspired by Schinkel and developed at Holmwood House, q.v.
Worsdall recorded that the drawing room had “a dark blue ceiling with
golden stars in relief.”
Busby House
by Colin McKellar
In February 1961, the late Frank Worsdall wrote to the
Eastwood Mercury and Advertiser pleading for someone to come to the rescue of Busby
House, 'an unpretentious building' originally built around 1796, but to which Alexander
Thomson added an extension. His plea was in vain, and the house was demolished.
-
"Busby House stands on the East bank of the White Cart, a short distance South from
Busby [wrote Frank Worsdall]. Historically it is of great interest, having been closely
connected with the adjoining mills, and therefore, with the life of the villagers for over
160 years. Architecturally, it is even more interesting, for about the middle of the last century the
occupier commissioned the great architect Alexander 'Greek' Thomson to design an addition
to the house. This extension is typical of Thomson's earlier style, and being still
largely unaltered, is of considerable cultural value.
-
"The original house was a plain unpretentious building of two storeys, erected about
1796 by a Mr Kessock, the founder of the adjoining printfield.
-
"The addition, built about 1858, consists chiefly of a long wing projecting westward
from the north end of the old house. It is one storey only, except at the west end, where
the lie of the land allows for a basement beneath the kitchen. There are two principal
rooms, both having fine large windows looking down to the garden and the river.
-
"The ornamental plasterwork is very striking, that in the dining-room representing
'Day', with a large sun in the centre and a sunflower motif around the cornice. The
drawing-room represents the night sky - a dark blue ground covered with golden stars
in relief.
-
"Thomson provided a new entrance in his wing, which communicates with both the old and
the new portions of the sculpture. For the library - the room at the opposite end of the
old house from the wing - he built a spectacular round window which catches the sun at
every hour of the day. As far as is known, only one other such window exists. The bedroom
window above was enlarged to that access might be had to the little balcony formed by the
bay window. The roof of the old house was altered, too, bringing it down to the same low
level as that of the wing. Picturesque iron lamps were added to the gateways to form
altogether a very striking and picturesque group.
-
"Busby House has been unoccupied for about a year, but has not seriously deteriorated,
although recently some damage was caused by vandals. The new owner now proposes to
demolish this exceptionally interesting and beautiful house to erect a block of flats on
the site. We have but too few examples left of the domestic work of 'Greek' Thomson to be
able to afford the loss of this fine old building. The cost of putting it in order would
not be high, and surely some useful purpose could be found for it, should it not be
possible for it to continue as a private residence.
-
"At present, its fate lies in the hands of Lanarkshire County Council, who may remain
unimpressed by the fact that this may well be the only genuine 'Greek' Thomson building in
their boundaries. I call on the people of the district to join me in making certain that
Busby House is preserved for posterity."
But preserved it was not, ultimately being demolished in 1969.
Situated on the Lanarkshire bank of the White Cart less than a hundred yards from the
calico printing works operated by the firm of Inglis & Wakefield, Busby House was the
accommodation for the print works manager. In 1861 this was Alexander Miller who is
described as a (calico) printer employing 440 men, 172 boys, 170 women and 82 girls. If
the census entry exaggerates Miller's role, for he was one of partners in the firm not the
proprietor, it also gives an indication of the scale of the adjacent industrial activity.
The Miller family were still in occupation in 1871, by which time the name had been
changed to Printfield House, while ten years later when Joseph Wakefield was the occupier
it had reverted to Busby House.
Busby House is considered, depending upon the authority, to have been reconstructed to
Thomson's design between 1856 and 1860. The first edition Ordnance map, drawn from
surveys made in 1857 and 1858, shows the original building which suggests that the later
dates are the more accurate. In any event the extensions had been completed prior to April
1861 when the census recorded fifteen rooms at Busby House.
Although Thomson's client has been identified as Durham Kippen owner of a local
bleaching works, the Kippen family were landed proprietors who rented the ground for Busby
House, the calico printing works and several smaller houses to Inglis & Wakefield. The
Kippen family could have had very little requirement for a substantial property adjoining
the print works and it is far more likely that Alexander Thomson's commission came from
Inglis & Wakefield.
From 1860/61, and for the remainder of Thomson's life, Inglis & Wakefield's Glasgow
address was 74 Gordon Street, part of Thomson's Grosvenor building. Not only were they
amongst the earliest tenants of the new building but they paid the largest rental.
According to the abstract accounts for Martinmas 1872 (when the building was fully let)
Inglis & Wakefield's contribution was some thirty per cent of the total.
Neither Inglis & Wakefield nor Durham Kippen of Busby subscribed to the Alexander
Thomson Memorial. However a donation was received from Durham Kippen's elder brother,
James Hill Kippen of Westerton near Balloch ; there is no immediate explanation for his
being one of 'Mr Thomson's non-professional friends'.
The original plan of Busby House is in the City Archive entitled 'Plan of Busby House
Drains' (the drains have been omitted), dating from circa 1923. The conservatory was
removed later in the 1920s. The drawing is published by permission of the City Archive and
the owner, Mrs Joan Sellyn, who deposited a group of records with the Archive in 1991
under the heading 'Calico Printers' Association'.
The two Ordnance Survey maps, published courtesy of the Ordnance Survey, show the house
and area (above right) in the 1st Edition, and (lower right) in the Second Edition
(revised 1896). The original house, immediately to the south of the oval garden, is
numbered 407.
Field Road, immediately in front of Busby House, was the only means of access to the
print works for the labour force. Prior to the opening of the railway in 1866 (which edges
into the bottom right corner of the 2nd Edition map) all the goods and materials also
entered and exited by this route.
Around 1930, when Busby House was put up for sale, the owners of the house compiled an
album of exterior photographs for potential purchasers, These photographs, which are
reproduced by kind permission of Robert McC. Anderson, appear left.
By 1961, the contrast
between stonework and harling had been replaced by an embracing (we assume) white.
Certainly, it mirrors the condition in which Busby House was photographed by the National
Monuments Record of Scotland in the late 1960s, reproduced in Newsletter No.6.
Sources
East Kilbride Census 1861, 1871, 1881
Calico, Cotton & Character, Eastwood District Libraries, 1988
Burke's Landed Gentry, 1937 edition, 'Kippen of Westerton' entry
Glasgow Post Office Directories
ATSN No.13, 'Gordon Street accounts'
ATSN No.13, 'Alexander Thomson Memorial'
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