Colourful traditions
Villa with green theme has host of features to envy, writes Paul Drury
IT was Henry Ford who said a customer could have a car in any colour they wanted – as long as it was black. Well, woe betide anyone thinking about changing the verdant hue of Torrisdail, a delightful 1930s villa with woodwork in glorious British racing green.
It has always been green. That is known because this is the first time the five-bedroom property at Lugton Brae, near Dalkeith, Midlothian, has been on the market.
It was built in 1936 for a Mr Pirie, who was decamping from his home in Sutherland to become headmaster at Dalkeith Grammar School (now Dalkeith High). He named his home after the village he came from, Torrisdale, but it’s a bit of a mystery why the spelling changed over the years.
Current owners Myra and Derek Lister bought it from his daughter in 1979 in an off-the-market deal.
Clare Lister, the couple’s daughter, explained: ‘We lived just down the road and I guess my mum and dad had been admiring it from afar. I was eight years old when we moved in and I remember it as a wonderful childhood home.
‘We were never encouraged to play in the front garden but we could run wild in the back. It was fabulous.’ Needless to say, her parents maintained the tradition of keeping the woodwork green, which tends to underline the house’s Art Deco profile.
Unusually, the original window frames are wooden, rather than the steel Crittal-style you generally associate with the period.
Other lovely touches inside include the red brick fireplaces in the dining room and sitting room and fanlight windows looking out to the garden. The green-tiled balcony from the master bedroom provides a further nod to Torrisdail’s 1930s heritage.
This was the sun-worshipping era, when living the outdoor life was considered the panacea to all our ailments.
But Miss Lister said: ‘My favourite thing in winter is to curl up in the sitting room in front of a roaring fire. All the public rooms face south, so it’s always a bright, warm house. Lugton is a conservation area and affords lovely views towards Dalkeith and the gorgeous church spire.’
The conservatory is another comfy place to appreciate the views. An adjoining annexe was built for Miss Lister’s sister, Nicola, who uses a wheelchair.
The annexe provides almost selfcontained accommodation, comprising a double bedroom, an en suite wet room and French doors which open onto the garden. Here, you are spoilt for choice for what to do. There are various seating areas, lawns, sheds and – would you believe – the green house has two greenhouses.
In total, Torrisdail has almost 3,000 square feet of accommodation. Enough to turn you a certain colour of envy…