M234 Addition and alterations to Westbourne House

Westbourne House is a large classical villa on a prominent site at the S.E. corner of Great Western Road and Hyndland Road. It was built c. 1873, possibly to a design by Robert Turnbull, partner of Alexander 'Greek' Thomson. 1

John Finlay Maclaren is listed at this address for the first time in the 1903–4 Glasgow Post Office Directory, having previously been at 'Carraith' (or Corraith), Troon, Ayrshire. He immediately set about adapting the house to suit his family's needs, adding a morning room and a new kitchen, and making small improvements to the service accommodation. He also proposed having the stables altered to provide a laundry, though this work appears not to have been carried out. Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh would have been the obvious choice to carry out these works because they were already engaged on additions to the Eglinton Foundry, the family business in which Maclaren became, or already was, a partner. 2

There is some stylistic evidence that Mackintosh had a hand in the foundry designs, but there is nothing about the style of the Westbourne House additions, or the drawings approved by the Glasgow Dean of Guild Court, to suggest his involvement. The drawings are signed by John Keppie. 3

The morning room and kitchen are in a single-storey addition on the E. side of the original house, with minimal classical details. Inside, the morning room has a bolection-moulded marble chimneypiece and compartmented plaster ceiling. The kitchen has an unusually lofty open timber roof with simple arched trusses.

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