Description
Hippolyte J Blanc, completed by George MacLaren, dated 1886; billiard room wing by William Gauldie and Robert Hardie, 1920. 2-storey and high attic, irregular-plan, large French Renaissance-style villa. Snecked and bull-faced rubble Dumfries sandstone, polished dressings, some harl, green slate roof. Windows mainly ashlar transom and mullion, some canted; chamfered reveals, moulded at S and W elevations; sash and case frames with plate glass at bottom and multi-pane at top. Cill courses at S elevation; wallhead course; elongated, shouldered wallhead stacks with moulded copes; cast-iron rainwater goods with decorative brackets and hoppers. Pyramidal, apsidal and piended, steeply pitched multi-form roof with lead flashings; lucarnes, brattishing and weathervane at highest point.
S ELEVATION: door at centre with fanlight and moulded, pilastered and pedimented doorpiece with Ionic capitals, flanked by bipartite windows; single window above at left, bipartite at right with mannered segmental pediment and name and date stone 'Red Court 1886'. 2-storey, 6-light canted window breaking through wallhead at projecting bay at far right. 2-storey, 8-light canted angle window at far left,l set-back tripartite canted window with pedimented lintels at attic; tripartite Dutch-gabled dormerhead adjoining at right.
W ELEVATION: recessed bay at right; bipartite window at centre, single at left, 4-light canted window with parapet at right, 3 windows at 1st floor, further bowed window at right re-entrant, massive wallhead stack at centre, pedimented Venetian dormer at right. Advanced gable at far right; canted angle window as S elevation, massive corbelled wallhead stack at left. Single storey and attic billiard room wing advanced at far left; door at right re-entrant with storm porch, tripartite canted window with parapet, flat roof dormer at pyramidal roof with swept eaves clasping main house at right.
E ELEVATION: advanced piended-roof bay at centre with 2 windows at ground floor, bipartite at 1st. Recessed bay at left; windows at ground and 1st floor right, corbelled wallhead stack with pedimented detail. Recessed bay at right; tripartite window with relieving arch, window and service hatch at right, 2 windows at 1st floor, wallhead stack.
N ELEVATION: 2 projecting piended-roof wings with single and 2-storey sections linking; harled billiard room wing at right with 3 windows, single storey projection at left.
INTERIOR: in original condition throughout, including all chimneypieces and msot kitchen and bathroom ceramics. The following are of particular interest: stirrup pump type WS in outer hall; panelled outer and inner halls; imperial staircase with turned balusters and carved newel posts, tripartite Pre-Rephaelite stained glass stair window; fruit and foliate frieze of various colours in drawing room; Art Nouveau fieze in dining room; suite including gun room, cloakroom and panelled billiard room with original sanctuary lamp-type light fittings; boarded napery and ironing room on 1st floor; hand-painted Kate Greenaway-type designs on chimneypiece tiles in day and night nurseries; attic suite including boarded dark room, bathroom and original panelled billiard room; speaking tube system.
SUNDIAL: oriental design blue and white ceramic sundial on hexagonal ashlar plinth.
LAMP STANDARD: cast-iron lamp standard with foliate decoration, fluted shaft and Corinthian capital.
GATEPIERS, BOUNDARY AND GARDEN WALLS: 2 mannered painted gatepiers at S, square chamfered to octagonal with moulded caps; further plain gatepiers to pedestrian gate. 2 chamfered ashlar gatepiers with pyramidal caps at N (coach house) entrance. Rubble boundary walls with rounded coping at N, S and E; brick boundary wall at W and at kitchen garden.