The Life and Work of Alexander Thomson
Reproduced with kind permission - McFadzean R, The Life and Work of Alexander Thomson, London (1979), pp24-30
 
PART ONE THE EARLY YEARS BAIRD & THOMSON, WORK 1949-56

Contemporary with Seymour Lodge is Craig Ailey. It is situated near the village of Kilcreggan but instead of being on the level raised beach like Seymour Lodge, it is located on a prominence about eighty feet above sea level and commanding spectacular views over the Firth of Clyde to the south and west. It is in a style which is chiefly derived from Italian Romanesque forms - often referred to in the nineteenth century as Italianate.

It was originally designed as a summer residence for John McElroy, a contractor in Glasgow. Space was used as economically as possible in its internal arrangements and many of the features noted in Seymour Lodge reappear in this building but Thomson has developed them with much greater power and imagination.

The relation of the building to the landscape assumes far greater importance than at Seymour Lodge and it is clear that, in this composition, one of Thomson's primary aims was an unusually close integration of the building with nature. The villa was constructed on a high podium of rough stones set on end to suggest a continuation of the stratified cliff, near the brink of which the building is placed. This extraordinary treatment firmly ties the building into the landscape by its sheer mass and gives the impression that the house is growing out of the cliff, instead of merely being an object placed upon it. This is very much a mediaeval conception reminiscent of the castles of the Middle Ages standing on their rocky eminence's, but it must be remembered that these structures grew out of defense considerations and not from aesthetic ideals. It is curious that Thomson did not adopt the Greek practice of

 
10 Craig Ailey, Kilcreggan, Dunbartonshire (1850): view from the south east showing the picturesque nature of the composition.
setting a building in the landscape like a huge piece of sculpture with the surrounding landscape as a background. This illustrates the independence and flexibility of Thomson's mind and shows that, in spite of his developing belief in the principles of classical architecture, he had the courage to depart from doctrinaire ideals and adapt ideas from other styles when he believed that they could still contribute to the advancement of architecture.

Apart from the outstanding example of Ellisland (1871) all of his villas are asymmetrical in composition. Craig Ailey relies for its very picturesque effect on the use of simple stone masses which build up to a small tower crowned by a shallow pyramidal roof with a very broad eaves overhanging the wallhead. The general impression is one of great stability and strength gained by the balancing of one form against another and by the sensitive contrast of small round headed windows with plain stone walls.

A weakness of design is that it is obvious that Thomson intended it to be viewed mainly from the south-east. From this aspect the principal and secondary forms are strongly grouped to afford maximum effect to the composition. Although the villa is of interest from other view points, none of them approaches the south-east aspect in imaginative skill and mastery of design. His reason for this attitude to composition is unknown but he could, perhaps, have been influenced by the picturesque qualities of buildings depicted in landscape paintings. It is known that he had a great interest in the fine arts and a deep admiration for the work of John Martin and J.M.W. Turner in particular.

 
11 Craig Ailey: Plans from Villa and Cottage Architecture. In his efforts to maintain external symmetry Thomson used the unattractive device of off-set window reveals at the dressing room and bath room on the upper floor.
The horizontal emphasis noticed in the kitchen wing at Seymour Lodge is developed in a much more emphatic manner at Craig Ailey and is not restricted to one part of the building only but is carried across, and around, all the elevations thus acting as a powerful three-dimensional unifying element. The use of the rugged schistose podium capped by a contrasting dressed freestone plinth, dressed string and corbel courses which are continuous around the whole building, together with the low pitched roofs and there broad overhanging eaves and extended projections at the gables, contribute to the restful horizontal quality of the villa.

The overhanging roofs are quite different in construction and in their aesthetic qualities from those at Seymour Lodge. The most obvious difference is the pitch of the roofs. At Seymour Lodge the main roof pitch varies from 45º to 61º while the lower secondary roofs range from through 40º, 44º and 67º. This lack of uniformity in pitch may have been a deliberate attempt to exaggerate the picturesque nature of the building and thus emphasise its relaxed, casual quality but it also tends to convey an impression of disorganisation.

In complete contrast to Seymour Lodge the main roofs at Craig Ailey have a uniform pitch of 30º with a variety of even lower pitches over the secondary roofs - 25º over the tower, 17º at the bay window, and 16º over the main entrance. The consistency of pitch over the main roofs gives a sense of coherence to the main building while the

 

12 Craig Ailey: South Elevation from Villa and Cottage Architecture.The podium of masonry laid on edge is most unusual and is intended to echo the appearance of the nearby cliffs
very shallow roofs over the lower secondary elements help to bring the main mass of the building into harmony with the sloping nature of the surrounding garden.

By adopting such low roof pitches, Thomson could be regarded as taking an unacceptable risk which could only result in failure to keep out the effect of adverse weather. To avoid this hazard he used large Westmorland slates, double nailed, and covered the very shallow bay window with lead sheeting. The relative flatness of his roofs has often been used as an argument against his constructional skill but the following comment written in 1868 about Craig Ailey seems to contradict the objection:

Objections are often urged against roofs of so low a pitch as those of this villa, but the experience gained by this house, standing as it does in a very exposed position, goes far to prove that such roofs really require less repair than those of a steep gothic pitch. Whilst roofs of the latter form on houses similarly situated in the immediate vicinity of the one under consideration have been often damaged by the severe gales to which this coast is exposed, those of this villa have now stood for a number of years without requiring any considerable repair. The great projection of the roof is found of material advantage in protecting the walls and preserving them water-tight.

Visually, the roof surfaces at Craig Ailey are very simple, relying for effect on the inherent qualities of the slates while those at Seymour Lodge display an interesting use of undersized West Highland slates which are arranged as horizontal bands contrasted with others cut to a diamond pattern. This gives variety and lightness to the roof. The drawings show that this treatment is in character with the ornate quality of the house but in reality it is hardly noticeable. To twentieth-century eyes the device may appear meretricious but to the Victorian middle class it was perhaps necessary to express their new wealth by such decorative display.

Craig Ailey abounds with unusual masonry detail composed of a strange mixture of Italian Romanesque, Gothic and classical forms which are combined with great skill. It is only upon close examination that one realises the very wide range of styles from which Thomson was drawing inspiration at this stage in his career.

So far, consideration has been given to the use of similar architectural features and ideas in Seymour Lodge and Craig Ailey, but it is now time to examine two themes which occur in the latter house and which acquire great importance in his latter villas.

 

13 Craig Ailey: the bay window of the drawing room showing the curious mixture of Romanesque and classically inspired details. From Villa and Cottage Architecture.
The first is the tower, which has already been mentioned. It does not contain a stair. As many imagine, but a belvedere, or smoking room, and provides a very important vertical element when contrasted with the horizontal emphasis of the rest of the villa. It must not be thought that this is an original idea. Its origins are obscure but it was already present in Britain in the early nineteenth century when it was used in a circular form at Cronkhill (1802) by John Nash and by Paxton at Edensor (1838-42). In addition, it occurs frequently in the smaller villas of Italy; abounds as a background incident in many eighteenth - and nineteenth-century paintings; and was used by Karl Friedrich von Schinkel, Klaus von Arnim, Ludwig Persius and other German neo-classical architects in the early half of the nineteenth century throughout Britain and in the USA.

The second feature of interest to emerge at Craig Ailey is the use of decorative motifs derived directly from the classical. In masonry this is confined to the flanking pilasters at the main entrance where very simple mouldings are used to build up a kind of pseudo-Tuscan Order. In lesser hands, one would expect to find an entablature and pediment over this feature but Thomson's classicism is far from rigid, and so he substitutes a shallow hip roof with wide eaves for the pediment.

The ornamental cast-iron riling over the bay window is freely derived from the anthemion and honeysuckle motifs which are such common decorative features in Greek architecture while the finial crowning the tower is obviously inspired by the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates.

The chimney pots, which are of terracotta, are about six feet high and have been handled in striking fashion as short columns, each with a base, a shaft and a capital which is a curious blend of Greek and perhaps Egyptian ideas. They are arranged in groups of three which helps to emphasise their columnar qualities. The use of Greek-inspired decoration and detailing gradually assumes greater importance in Thomson's buildings until about 1855-6 when the first of his really classically inspired buildings appears.

Possessing a different quality are the gateposts adjacent to the main entrance from the tree lined road. They are constructed of irregular blocks of white quartz collected from the nearby shore with all decorative features carried out in freestone. They resemble miniature towers with corbels and shallow pitched coping stones reminiscent of the main tower of the villa. The use of materials and the bizarre handling of forms and proportions are highly suggestive of the work of Antonio Gaudi (1852-1926) and represent one of Thomson's most astonishingly prophetic designs.

Elsewhere in Britain at this time, villas were designed in the cottage orné or the Italian Romanesque styles and consequently Seymour Lodge and Craig Ailey are variants of these. What is significant in Thomson's work is that despite some lack of originality he has handled them both convincingly and is already moving towards the underlying principles of his mature work.