Bowerswell

Bowerswell (formerly known as Whistlecroft)[1] is an early 19th-century house in Bowerswell Road, Kinnoull, Scotland. It is a Grade B listed building and was the childhood home of Effie Gray; she and John Ruskin were married there in 1848.

Bowerswell in 2016

After World War II the house and surrounding grounds were purchased by Perth Council as a "living" war memorial; the house and 20 cottages in the grounds serve as sheltered housing.[2][3] The City of Perth Book of Remembrance for WW2 is housed in the building.[4]

Description

The house was described in the Perth Courier of 24 August 1809 as "Lately Built", likely by Perth lord provost Thomas Hay Marshall (who died at the property in July 1808),[5] and had a succession of owners before being sold to George Gray, a lawyer, and future father of Effie Gray, in 1827. It was rented to John Thomas Ruskin (grandfather of the writer John Ruskin) in 1809, but the Ruskin family never owned it.[6] It is described at the time of Effie's childhood as "a Regency villa overlooking the city of Perth"[7] (the Regency era officially spanned the years 1811 to 1820, though the term is commonly applied to the longer period of 1795–1837).

The Buildings of Scotland volume describes it as "a large house of 1848"[8] and the Historic Environment Scotland listing also gives its date as 1848,[9] but these dates would appear to refer to a remodelling. It "was only about forty years old in 1842–44 when George Gray undertook an extensive rebuilding in that neo-renaissance style which John [Ruskin] was to assail so comprehensively in his books".[10]

References
  1. Douglas, Sheila (2003), McKean, Thomas A. (ed.), "The Life and Times of Rosie Anderson", The Flowering Thorn, International Ballad Studies, University Press of Colorado, pp. 175–182, ISBN 978-0-87421-568-7, retrieved 2023-09-05
  2. Bannerman, Gordon (25 March 2011). "Bowerswell's future". Daily Record.
  3. Historic Environment Scotland, "Perth, Bowerswell Road, Bowerswell (227195)", Canmore, retrieved 29 June 2022
  4. "City of Perth - Book of Remembrance WW2 (The 'Golden Book')". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 29 June 2022.
  5. Scots Magazine (1808)
  6. Brownell, Robert (2013). Marriage of Inconvenience. London: Pallas Athene. p. 21. ISBN 978-1-84368-076-5.
  7. Fagence Cooper, Suzanne (2016). Effie: The Passionate Lives of Effie Gray, Ruskin and Millais. London: Duckworth. p. 12. ISBN 978-0715641446.
  8. Gifford, John (2007). The Buildings of Scotland: Perth and Kinross. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. p. 655. ISBN 978-0-300-10922-1.
  9. Historic Environment Scotland (20 May 1965). "BOWERSWELL ROAD BOWERSWELL (Category B Listed Building) (LB39388)". Retrieved 20 June 2022.
  10. Brownell, Robert (2013). Marriage of Inconvenience. London: Pallas Athene. p. 29. ISBN 978-1-84368-076-5.

56.3976°N 3.4182°W / 56.3976; -3.4182

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