Thomas Brown (d. 1782) was an Ayrshire-born surgeon who had made his fortune in India before residing in London, and later Glasgow. He was made partner in the Ship Bank in 1775 and in the same year purchased land in Langside from Robert Crawford of Possle to build his own mansion. He married Martha, eldest daughter of George Bogle of Daldowie and had four sons and one daughter. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Dr Thomas Brown, upon his death in 1782.

The Adam office made a series of designs for Langside House, which were incorrectly ascribed to Aikenhead House. Aikenhead was an estate owned by the banker Robert Scott and does not relate to these designs. The confusion might relate to Thomas Brown having resided at Aikenhead House prior to his purchase of land in Langside in 1775.

The Adam office made designs for a house and stable offices which appear to have been constructed, as shown in nineteenth-century maps and photographs. Langside House comprised a simple rectangular villa with bowed ends and a projecting porch which linked to the stable offices via curved or ‘circular’ corridors. The surviving designs also included a series of chimneypieces and friezes but it is not clear if any internal work was carried out by the Adam office. The house was demolished in the mid-twentieth century.

Literature: G. Crawford, History of the Shire of Renfrew, 1818, p. 271; R. Reid, Old Glasgow and Its Environs, 1864, p. 409; A.T. Bolton, The Architecture of Robert and James Adam, Volume II, Index, 1922, p. 1; D. King, The Complete Works of Robert & James Adam and Unbuilt Adam, Volume 1, 2001, pp. 106, 129

Louisa Catt, 2023