Gean House
Encyclopedia
Gean House, or The Gean, is an early 20th century Arts and Crafts
style mansion, located on Tullibody Road, Alloa
, Scotland
. It is often used as a venue for events.
, for £6,220. His intention was to "erect and complete in a satisfactory manner a Mansion House and relative Offices."
Alexander Forrester-Paton was the managing director of the Alloa-based firm of Patons
, the successful family business founded by his grandfather to manufacture wool
len yarn
. Some 16 years earlier, Alexander had purchased land from the Earl to build his own family home at nearby Inglewood. No expense had been spared in the construction of Inglewood House, a magnificent building that confirmed the growing status of the Paton family. Alexander Forrester-Paton also owned large estates in Clackmannanshire
, and built several other buildings, such as Cowdenpark
, where he lived.
Gean House was to be built as a wedding gift for Alexander’s eldest son, also named Alexander, who worked in the family business. Plans were commissioned from William Kerr, (1866–1940), partner in the local firm of John Melvin & Sons, a tried and tested architect previously engaged to design Patons' imposing headquarters at Kilncraigs in Alloa.
The Gean House commission was not confined to the erection of one dwelling. A country house of distinction required lodges and staff accommodation. Kerr’s task was to design and construct a mini-estate, inclusive of north, south and east lodges, a walled garden, glasshouses and garaging for family vehicles.
, (1869–1944), the distinguished English architect. Lutyen’s early work marked the transition from the authoritative and imposing Victorian
country house style to the softer, Arts and Crafts
style of the Edwardian era, that sought to integrate houses and gardens into the landscape. There are therefore striking differences between the late Victorian design of Inglewood and the romantic, retro style chosen for Gean, despite being built only 12 years later.
Gean House bears all the hallmarks of Lutyen’s romantic approach, deploying traditional materials, softened with creepers and extensive planting. The generous, steep roofs, tall chimneystacks and side entranceway at Gean are all notable Lutyen’s features, brilliantly executed by Kerr. The design of Gean also reflects the prevalent changes in social and economic conditions. As jobs in factories and offices increasingly offered better pay, fewer hours and more independence, suitable domestic staff were becoming difficult to find. Servants therefore had to be tempted to work in country houses by ensuring that they were less arduous to run and offered improved standards of staff accommodation.
Modern, labour saving, technology was therefore enthusiastically embraced at Gean to include central heating, gas ignition coal fires and electric lighting. The service wing was designed to be very much part of the main house, with attractive, south facing, staff bedrooms positioned to overlook the principal gardens. Only the higher cill levels of the service wing windows give away its original function.
Despite its modernity, Gean House incorporates many features to be found in country houses of earlier periods; the grand hall, complete with minstrels' gallery
, the timber panelled dining room, the elegant drawing room, the library and the billiard room
. Inglenook
fireplaces form a decorative feature throughout Gean, and a practical means of retaining fireside heat. Conservatories were no longer fashionable in Edwardian Britain, but loggia
s and Japanese-style gardens
were very much in vogue and incorporated into the grand plan.
William Kerr was fortunate that his clients had the money to ensure that he could design and deliver one of the most outstanding buildings of its time. A local firm, Robert Cairns of Alloa, was engaged to build Kerr’s design. The quality of their craftsmanship is evidenced throughout the building. Gean House functioned as an affluent family home for fewer than 40 years.
The house was sold to a Melbourne
-based businessman in 1982, but remained boarded up and abandoned for a further seven years until it found new owners with ambitions to turn the house into an exclusive private hotel. A considerable investment was made in 1989 to partially restore the building and redress years of neglect. However, within a few years, the hotel business failed.
In 1999, Gean House was bought by an Alloa-based trust company, now known as Ceteris. The company, which also owns Inglewood House, has fully restored the property as a venue for a wide range of business and social events. Gean House is a category A listed building.
Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
style mansion, located on Tullibody Road, Alloa
Alloa
Alloa is a town and former burgh in Clackmannanshire, set in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It lies on on the north bank of the Firth of Forth close to the foot of the Ochil Hills, east of Stirling and north of Falkirk....
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. It is often used as a venue for events.
Background
In November 1911, Alexander Forrester-Paton, of Inglewood House, Alloa, purchased 30 acres (12.1 ha) of land from the Earl of Mar and KellieWalter John Francis Erskine, 12th Earl of Mar
Walter John Francis Erskine, 12th Earl of Mar and 14th Earl of Kellie KT JP was a Scottish nobleman.The eldest son of Walter Erskine, 11th Earl of Mar and Mary Anne Forbes, he was educated at Eton and served as a Lieutenant in the Scots Guards from 1887 until 1892.He succeeded his father in 1888,...
, for £6,220. His intention was to "erect and complete in a satisfactory manner a Mansion House and relative Offices."
Alexander Forrester-Paton was the managing director of the Alloa-based firm of Patons
Patons and Baldwins
Patons and Baldwins was a leading British manufacturer of knitting yarn. It was a constituent of the FT 30 index of leading companies on the London Stock Exchange.-History:...
, the successful family business founded by his grandfather to manufacture wool
Wool
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....
len yarn
Yarn
Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, suitable for use in the production of textiles, sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery and ropemaking. Thread is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern manufactured sewing threads may be finished with wax or...
. Some 16 years earlier, Alexander had purchased land from the Earl to build his own family home at nearby Inglewood. No expense had been spared in the construction of Inglewood House, a magnificent building that confirmed the growing status of the Paton family. Alexander Forrester-Paton also owned large estates in Clackmannanshire
Clackmannanshire
Clackmannanshire, often abbreviated to Clacks is a local government council area in Scotland, and a lieutenancy area, bordering Perth and Kinross, Stirling and Fife.As Scotland's smallest historic county, it is often nicknamed 'The Wee County'....
, and built several other buildings, such as Cowdenpark
Cowden Park House
Cowden Park House is a house in Alloa, Clackmannanshire, Scotland. On 17 June 1977 it was listed as a Category C historic building .It was built in the 1850s for Alexander Forrester-Paton, a member of the family which owned the Paton & Baldwins Wool company...
, where he lived.
Gean House was to be built as a wedding gift for Alexander’s eldest son, also named Alexander, who worked in the family business. Plans were commissioned from William Kerr, (1866–1940), partner in the local firm of John Melvin & Sons, a tried and tested architect previously engaged to design Patons' imposing headquarters at Kilncraigs in Alloa.
The Gean House commission was not confined to the erection of one dwelling. A country house of distinction required lodges and staff accommodation. Kerr’s task was to design and construct a mini-estate, inclusive of north, south and east lodges, a walled garden, glasshouses and garaging for family vehicles.
A contemporary design
Completed in 1912, Kerr’s design for Gean was greatly influenced by the work of Edwin LutyensEdwin Lutyens
Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens, OM, KCIE, PRA, FRIBA was a British architect who is known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era...
, (1869–1944), the distinguished English architect. Lutyen’s early work marked the transition from the authoritative and imposing Victorian
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...
country house style to the softer, Arts and Crafts
Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
style of the Edwardian era, that sought to integrate houses and gardens into the landscape. There are therefore striking differences between the late Victorian design of Inglewood and the romantic, retro style chosen for Gean, despite being built only 12 years later.
Gean House bears all the hallmarks of Lutyen’s romantic approach, deploying traditional materials, softened with creepers and extensive planting. The generous, steep roofs, tall chimneystacks and side entranceway at Gean are all notable Lutyen’s features, brilliantly executed by Kerr. The design of Gean also reflects the prevalent changes in social and economic conditions. As jobs in factories and offices increasingly offered better pay, fewer hours and more independence, suitable domestic staff were becoming difficult to find. Servants therefore had to be tempted to work in country houses by ensuring that they were less arduous to run and offered improved standards of staff accommodation.
Modern, labour saving, technology was therefore enthusiastically embraced at Gean to include central heating, gas ignition coal fires and electric lighting. The service wing was designed to be very much part of the main house, with attractive, south facing, staff bedrooms positioned to overlook the principal gardens. Only the higher cill levels of the service wing windows give away its original function.
Despite its modernity, Gean House incorporates many features to be found in country houses of earlier periods; the grand hall, complete with minstrels' gallery
Minstrels' gallery
A minstrels' gallery is a form of balcony, often inside the great hall of a castle or manor house, and used to allow musicians to perform, sometimes discreetly hidden from the guests below.-Notable minstrel's galleries:...
, the timber panelled dining room, the elegant drawing room, the library and the billiard room
Billiard room
A billiard room is a recreation room, such as in a house or recreation center, with a billiards, pool or snooker table...
. Inglenook
Inglenook
An inglenook , or chimney corner, is a small recess that adjoins a fireplace.Inglenook may also refer to:*Inglenook, California, community in Mendocino County...
fireplaces form a decorative feature throughout Gean, and a practical means of retaining fireside heat. Conservatories were no longer fashionable in Edwardian Britain, but loggia
Loggia
Loggia is the name given to an architectural feature, originally of Minoan design. They are often a gallery or corridor at ground level, sometimes higher, on the facade of a building and open to the air on one side, where it is supported by columns or pierced openings in the wall...
s and Japanese-style gardens
Japanese garden
, that is, gardens in traditional Japanese style, can be found at private homes, in neighborhood or city parks, and at historical landmarks such as Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines and old castles....
were very much in vogue and incorporated into the grand plan.
William Kerr was fortunate that his clients had the money to ensure that he could design and deliver one of the most outstanding buildings of its time. A local firm, Robert Cairns of Alloa, was engaged to build Kerr’s design. The quality of their craftsmanship is evidenced throughout the building. Gean House functioned as an affluent family home for fewer than 40 years.
After the Patons
Gean remained a Paton family residence until 1951, when it was gifted to the Scottish Temperance Alliance for use as a conference and study centre. During the 1970s, both the north and south lodges and a policy field were sold off, and much of the parkland gifted to the local council. Despite raising money by dismembering the estate, the registered owners, The Gean House (Scottish Temperance Alliance) Limited, went into liquidation in 1979.The house was sold to a Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
-based businessman in 1982, but remained boarded up and abandoned for a further seven years until it found new owners with ambitions to turn the house into an exclusive private hotel. A considerable investment was made in 1989 to partially restore the building and redress years of neglect. However, within a few years, the hotel business failed.
In 1999, Gean House was bought by an Alloa-based trust company, now known as Ceteris. The company, which also owns Inglewood House, has fully restored the property as a venue for a wide range of business and social events. Gean House is a category A listed building.