Murray and Burrell Exhibition House

In July, 2025, while enjoying the wave of interest generated by the Bernat Klein Studio auction, I was contacted by an enthusiast of modernism asking about the location and accessibility of the various Scottish Borders Womersley buildings. A couple of weeks later an Instagram posting duly appeared, and it contained a photo of ‘Sharon’ a house in Gattonside that began its life as the Murray & Burrell Exhibition house, along with a question that was essentially ‘WT*’?!

The Exhibition House was a collaboration between Womersley and the well-known building firm, intended for use as a show house to attract interest in a relatively low-cost and well-designed style of modern housing.

This is Sharon, after an architecturally fluid reimagining at some point in the past 40 years:

(Image credit: © Jim Seidler family, late 1960's)

To cut a long story of degrees of separation short, it turns out that Jim’s parents and the Walker family (Jimmy and Anna, Jimmy having been Womersley’s accountant) had lived in Gattonside at the same time and were friends (Gattonside: world capital of Womersley domestic architecture, with 3 of 14 of his built houses located there). The person with whom I had had the exchange on Instagram was David Walker, son of the said Walker family.

Here, then, in his own words, are Jim Seidler’s reflections of growing up in a Womersley house.

‘In 1957 when Sharon was the “Murray & Burrell Exhibition House”, my future wife Jennifer Burnett visited the house which she thought was a very modern and bright glass box.

In 1967, my parents purchased the “Murray & Burrell Exhibition House” on Bakers Road in Gattonside where they lived until 1985. The name on the gate to the house is Sharon and that is the name by which the property is known. This was my home from 1967 to 1971.

My first visit to Sharon was in 1967 when the clean lines of the exterior impressed me. This impression was enhanced by the light wood on a part of the facade as well as on the cupboards inside facing the front door. The interior open plan layout of the kitchen, dining area, and sitting area at the front impressed me as a spacious living area and the separate sleeping area at the rear struck me as logical. Sharon was set back and elevated from the road which enhanced its appearance as a classic example of a modernist brick and glass box shaped house. The house blended into the streetscape of Bakers Road where there are several houses of architectural merit from various periods.

Peter Womersley placed importance on geometry and ‘heart’. Accordingly, the house was designed in the modernist style and built of brick and glass to form a rectangle. The interior was designed in a practical manner, with the open plan of the kitchen, dining area, and sitting area, forming the heart of the house. This was a comfortable living space at the front of the house. The outstanding feature of the house is the view from the front of the house. In the foreground is a field at the far end of which is the River Tweed with the Eildon Hills providing a magnificent background. This is a view of outstanding natural beauty.

The recent acquisition of Bernat Klein’s Studio will preserve an outstanding example of Peter Womersley’s modernist style of architecture. Bernat Klein was a business associate of my Father-in-law Bob Burnett who was a textile chemist with Kemp Blair in Galashiels. Many of Bernat Klein’s brilliant colours came to life in the lab at Kemp Blair. My wife remembers enjoying the booklets produced by Bernat Klein which showed the variety of colours in human eyes. Bernat Klein linked the colours of human eyes to the colours of clothes people with these eye colours should wear to best effect. Bernat Klein’s colourful textile designs and Peter Womersley’s modernist buildings are an important part of the cultural heritage of the Borders.

Thank you for preserving the story of the life and work of Peter Womersley. ‘