One of Broughty Ferry’s most iconic mansion houses has gone on sale for only the fourth time in 160 years.
Broomhall House was recently home to Jessie’s Kitchen, a popular café that closed last year. Prior to that it was a well-known garden centre called Turriff’s.
The B listed house contains the former café as well as two large apartments. Dating from 1865, it was built for jute importer Joseph Luke.
Legend has it that Luke had the house’s turret built so he could keep a weather eye on the number of ships coming into Dundee Harbour. If too many crowded in at once the price of jute could be haggled downwards. He would lower the flag to half-mast to let vessels under his control know to hang back for a while to achieve a better price.
In 1880 Luke sold the house to another famous Dundee jute family, the Halleys. At some point, most likely after the First World War it was bought by the Tulloch family, who subdivided it into three separate units in the early 1950s.
Broomhall House
Current owner Ian Turriff’s history with the house dates back to just after that time.
“My dad came here in 1954,” he explains.
“He rented a cottage at the back from Mrs Tulloch. His rental payment was two days a week looking after the gardens.”
In 1970 the Turriff family bought the ground floor and the former servants’ quarter, and in 1990 Ian and his wife Irene acquired the upstairs flat and turret, giving them ownership of the entire building.
For many years Broomhall House was operated as a garden centre. Ian’s father founded the business which at its peak had the main garden centre at Broomhall House as well as five greengrocer shops in the local area.
Latterly, Ian and Irene’s son Ross ran the ground floor as Jessie’s Kitchen. The popular café operated for around a dozen years before the business closed last summer.
Grand spaces
Most of the ground floor contains the former café. The rooms have the grand proportions enjoyed by many of Broughty Ferry’s jute mansions, with huge bay windows, extremely high ceilings and ornate cornicing.
The Victorian conservatory requires restoration work but has fantastic potential and even has its own rainwater collection system to create a humid, tropical atmosphere.
The games room is painted a deep red and has ornate stained glass ceiling panels. Ian turns a dial on the wall and slatted wooden vents in the roof open up. These would have been used when cigarette smoke grew too thick to see what was going on at the billiard table.
To the rear of the property is a two storey section that would most likely have been servants quarters at one time. It has two reception rooms and a kitchen on the ground floor and three rooms and a bathroom upstairs.
The largest of the lower and upper rooms both have bay windows. While it needs full renovation, it could be transformed into a stunning three or four bedroom house.
Tay views
An external staircase leads up to the apartment where Ian and Irene have lived since 1990. This has two living rooms, two bedrooms, a bathroom and a shower room. All the front facing rooms have exceptional views across the Tay.
A huge hallway is used as a dining area and would formerly have been the upper landing.
The original staircase was removed when the house was subdivided but the beautiful stained glass windows that once lit the stairwell remain in place.
A staircase leads up to the turret room which has windows on three sides and views that are quite spectacular.
With their son and daughter both long since having flown the nest Ian, 76, and Irene, 73, have decided to sell Broomhall House. Remarkably, this will be only the fourth time it has been on the market in its near-160-year history.
“Selling it will draw to a close a long chapter in our lives,” Ian says. “We’ve made a lot of great memories and loved our time here. In particular we’re going to miss the views over the Tay.
“It’s a huge building though and running costs have been increasing recently. We decided to sell it in one rather than in three pieces. That way if the new owners want to run a business from it they can. They can keep it divided in three. Or they could restore it to one big house as it originally was.”
Broomhall House is on sale with Gilson Gray for offers over £900,000.
Conversation