Seeing stars
House that gifted a breath of fresh air to children of Glasgow’s smog-ridden slums
EVERY now and again, a house comes along that hits you like a breath of fresh air. So step forward Southpark, an elegant early Victorian sandstone villa on the Isle of Bute. For some years, ‘fresh air’ is what Southpark provided in abundance to children affected by the TB crisis in Scotland’s biggest city.
While their parents recovered from the lung disease, young Glaswegians were taken by train and boat to what must have seemed like a fairytale castle on the coast at Ascog.
They spent six weeks at a time here – and what a change it must have been for them after the smog and disease of their home city. One lady in her eighties recently returned to tell the current owner that, for many of the children, it was the first time they had ever seen stars.
While the house has now been restored to the country manor it once was, little tell-tale signs remain of its institutional past.
In the basement, which has not been touched in almost 60 years, the children’s coat hooks remain, ready for them to hang up their little jackets.
Tuberculosis was the biggest single health problem facing Scotland in the years after the Second World War, particularly in Glasgow.
On February 21, 1956, Scottish Secretary James Stuart announced plans for ‘the most ambitious campaign against pulmonary tuberculosis yet attempted’.
After a slow take-up of the invitation to be screened for the disease, the authorities resorted to giving raffle tickets to volunteers prepared to turn up at mobile X-ray centres.
Prizes ranged from an Austin A35 car to holidays and household equip- ment. In Edinburgh, ‘X-ray Men’ offered free gifts in return for an agreement to be checked. While they waited, volunteers were entertained in a circus tent in Princes Street Gardens.
The campaign was so successful in Glasgow that, by 1959, 76 per cent of the city’s population had been screened by X-ray, a staggering 700,000 people.
But the ‘fresh air’ holidays came to an end in the early 1960s. After four years as a residential school for children with Down’s syndrome, Southpark closed.
A new lease of life emerged after it was bought in the 1970s. Fortunately, many of the original features survived.
Deserving of mention is the cornicing in the drawing room, some of the most intricate and delicate work you will see in Scotland.
The sitting room, on the other side of the entrance hall, is as grand as they come, with impressive columns and a magnificent Italianate limestone fireplace.
DOWNSTAIRS is completed by a handsome dining room, laundry room, butler’s pantry, kitchen, study and sauna. Upstairs, three of the five bedrooms are en suite and there is a renovated family bathroom. Southpark Lodge, within the 3.8 acres of grounds, offers extra accommodation, while the Coach House contains two flats.
‘It’s an idyllic place,’ said Margaret Morrison, who is reluctantly leaving Southpark after nine happy years. ‘Just across the road, there’s a little colony of seals. They pose like models for the tourists.’
Hardly a month goes by without someone chapping Mrs Morrison’s door to say they spent a happy holiday in her home as a child. She cheerily gives them a tour, to show how it has changed since then.
Many earnestly tell her: ‘You do know you have fairies at the bottom of your garden.’
Helpfully, Mrs Morrison says these tiny tenants are included in the asking price.
Offers over £825,000 to Harry McCorkell of Strutt & Parker. Tel 0131 226 2500 or email mccorkell@ struttandparker.com
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