Curvy style statement is an Art Deco delight
It was a child of its time – one of the finest and possibly final examples of Art Deco house design in Scotland. the curved lines of Lincroft, in Blairgowrie, followed the trend which had swept Europe and America in the 1920s and 30s.
this form of construction dispensed with the grander, more austere, appearance of domestic properties favoured by the Victorians and Edwardians.
the country villa was completed in 1937, just as the clouds of war were gathering over the continent.
By the time the Second World War was over, the movement born of the 1925 ‘Arts Decoratif’ exhibition in Paris had run its course.
In any case, the kind of niche materials required for Art Deco styling would have been in very short supply following six years of conflict.
As post-war housing became much more sensible, we are fortunate today to have homes like Lincroft to remind us of those times.
First of all, the house could hardly enjoy a more idyllic location. Its curved driveway leads out to Golf Course Road in the leafy Rosemount area of the Perthshire town.
the adjoining Blairgowrie Golf Course, which had been in existence for 50 years before Lincroft was built, was described as ‘the most beautiful inland green I have ever seen’ by no less than Old tom Morris.
the light-coloured wood in the reception hallway and staircase is in stark contrast to the brooding mahogany entrances you find in traditional Scottish homes of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
But it is one of the bathrooms which is likely to excite genuine fans of this genre; the sanitary ware has been left unchanged since the 1930s.
So we are left with the functional shape of the cistern, hand basin and bath, complete with shiny steel pipes and taps.
the original blue and green tiles have, as a centrepiece, a quite glorious Art Deco mirror flanked by delicate matching lights. Beautiful as it is, it is perhaps best not to spend too much time in the bathroom. the downstairs rooms carry all the bells and whistles of the Art Deco movement, from the diagonal brick fireplaces to the curved Crittall-style windows.
these are not original but have been sympathetically replaced in keeping with Lincroft’s B-Listed status. Accommodation includes formal lounge, sitting room, reading room, dining room, garden room, office and master bedroom.
A rear hallway leads to the staff quarters, a lift and family kitchen.
the kitchen opens on to the breakfast room with French double doors to the rear garden.
the first floor boasts three substantial bedrooms, each with the feature curved windows. the second-floor staff quarters offer four more bedrooms and bathroom.
Lincroft does not present itself as a museum to a bygone age. Rather, it’s a reminder that style was once in with the bricks.