The Hotel - History

We are often asked about the history of this unique house and have written a brief history regarding the previous owners and those who built the house.
The owners are happy to answer questions – but warn that they are not historians only interested occupiers, thus the information to follow may not be complete. We have done our best!

Knockderry House in the 19th Century

The modern house dates from around the mid-nineteenth century and was considerably smaller than the present building and owned by a Glasgow Wool Merchant, David Anderson and his family as a summer house. The major extensions by William Leiper in the last decade of the century added considerably both to its size and to its architectural interest and reflect upon Leipers interest in the Arts and Crafts movement.

The house stayed in the family until the end of the second world war whereupon it moved out of the ownership of the Andersons and was eventually turned into a hotel in 1966. The current owners bought the hotel 6 years ago and have spent considerable efforts to try and bring the house back to life. The following gives some insight to the original work men and the architect responsible for creating this fascinating building.

William Lieper and the Stained Glass Artists

The work, commissioned by the then owner, wealthy Glasgow wool merchant David Anderson, gave Leiper freedom to experiment and the resulting mixture of turrets, balconies, dormer and bay windows  can be seen today. For the interior decoration a unique mix of talented designers, namely Daniel Cottier, J Gordon Guthrie ('Guthrie Junior'), Jekyll and Leiper himself, were responsible for the very fine examples of stained glass, woodwork, and fireplaces which can be seen throughout the building.

William Leiper (1839-1916)

Many fine buildings in Scotland bear testimony to William Leiper's long and distinguished architectural career and to his fruitful collaboration with artists such as his friend Daniel Cottier. His achievements include Partick Burgh Halls, the Templeton Carpet Factory, (the Templeton family lived next door in Knockderry Castle) Glasgow Gas Light Building, the interior of Stirling Library, the Banqueting Hall of the City Chambers, Dowanhill Church, the refurbishment of 996 Gt Western Road, Glasgow.

After his move from Glasgow to Helensburgh in the early 1870's, he became the town's most prolific and influential architect. His Helensburgh buildings include Cairndhu, Bonnyton, Dalmore, Clarendon, Victoria Infirmary, Brantwoode, Red Tower, Morar Lodge, Drumadoon, and Terpersie, his own house. Other buildings in the area for which he was responsible are The Lodge at Loch Goil, and in Cove - the extensions to the Knockderry Castle, as well as those at Knockerry House. While Leiper spent most of his working life in Scotland, after the collapse of the City of Glasgow Bank in 1878 and the resulting economic depression, he moved to Paris to study painting. He was attracted back in 1880 to design the lavish interiors of the Russian imperial yacht Livadia in Govan.

Daniel Cottier (1838-1891)

Daniel Cottier started his career at the age of 14 when he was apprenticed to John Cairney & Co in Glasgow where he learnt the trade of decorating, glass staining and embossing. He later worked in London where he came in contact with the design concepts of the William Morris studio. His distinctive style developed early and is evident in his earliest known commission for Pilrig Parish Church, Leith Walk, Edinburgh, completed when he was just 25. A couple of years later, his work on the Townhead Parish Church, Glasgow, resulted in a string of further further commissions for decoration and glass, the first of which was from Alexander 'Greek' Thompson for Holmwood House (now owned by the National Trust for Scotland). Cottier also had a long and fruitful association with William Leiper, including work on Kirktonhill in Dumbarton, Woodside in Loch Goil, the United Presbyterian Church in Dowanhill, Cairndhu House in Helensburgh. His status as Scotland's most original decorator was firmly established with his work for Thomson on the Queen's Park United Presbyterian Church, Glasgow.Cottier's business flourished and he was able to open headquarters in London and branches in New York and Sydney. He moved to Australia to live and in the latter part of his life, worked as an art dealer specialising in introducing the Aesthetic Movement to interior design in the USA and Australia. His studio continued to produce his designs after his death.

John Guthrie & Co

The firm was established in 1850 by John Guthrie Snr. whose two sons John Jnr. (founder member of Art Workers Guild and the Glasgow Boys) and William joined the firm and helped to make it the most important and prolific Glasgow studio by the 1880's. When Cottier emigrated to Australia, his distinguished former clients, including Leiper, Thomson and Mackintosh, turned to the Guthries. Like Cottier, they were not confined to Scotland and after the success of the the Glasgow International Exhibition in 1888, they established a showroom in London. The Guthries continued to receive further commissions from leading Scottish architects until the turn of the century. John retired in 1899 and emigrated to the USA to join Louis Comfort Tiffany in New York specialising in ecclesiastical stained glass. The company went on to provide stained glass for the Queen Mary (1935), Glasgow's Locarno Ballroom (1937) and Rogano Oyster Bar (1935-36).