Description
George Shaw Aitken, 1880; major extension at W by Robert Gibson, 1911. 2-storey and tower, irregular-plan, large villa. Snecked tooled rubble with bull-faced base course and pale ashlar dressings, slate roof. Transom and mullion windows, chamfered margins, plate glass sash and case frames; open-work parapets at canted and rectangular windows and at S portico; continuous lintel course at 1st floor S and E elevations; bracketted eaves, plain bargeboards, exposed collars and posts at finialled gables cast-iron rainwater goods with decorative brackets and hoppers, moulded stacks.
E ELEVATION: single storey, 3-bay wing at right. Entrance porch advanced at centre; 2-leaf panelled door in moulded doorcase with sculpted lintel, moulded plinth, saw-tooth angle brackets, round-arched corbelling to open-bottom pediment with cartouche and other sculpted decoration, segmental acroterion. Recessed linking section at left with bipartite window; flat-roofed blank bay recessed at right with patera panel. Main house at left. T-plan Conservatory at centre; 5 light canted window at advanced single storey bay at far left, 5-light rectangular window at far right; 3 windows at 1st floor, bipartite atright gable with mannered block lintel.
S ELEVATION: original house at right. Tripartite window at centre, balcony at 1st floor with bipartite; advanced gable at far right with 2-storey, 5-light canted window, paired sawtooth angle brackets to oversailing gable with cartouche; 5-light rectangular projecting window at far right. Bipartite flanked by single windows at 1st floor. Extension at left, advanced from original elevation: semi-circular Doric columned entrance portico with balustrade at far right re-entrant, tripartite canted window above at diagonal with sawtooth brackets to oversailing gable; 6-light rectangular projecting window at left, bipartite flanked by single windows at 1st floor; 4-light canted window at far right with bipartite at 1st floor; corbelled round angled turret at left angle with tripartite 1st floor window, panel friezes and ogival finialled roof.
W ELEVATION: extension at right. Armorial shield flanked by oculi at right, forestair at left, door and 2 windows at 1st floor; windows at ground and 1st floor left return gable. Original building recessed at left. Single storey projection at far left; 4 windows at ground floor right, depressed arch windows at 1st floor with paired round-headed, multi-pane windows inserted, and balcony, mansard roof-light with finialled 4-sided cupola.
N ELEVATION: various single storey projections; 1st floor slightly advanced tripartite stair window off-centre with paired saw tooht brackets to oversailing gable; bipartite at right with piended-dormer above; bipartite at left with segmental pediment;: 2-stage tower rising above with 2 windows at 1st stage and window with balcony at 2nd, further windows at S, E and W elevations, moulded cornice and balustraded parapet with stone-finialled corner dies; blank bay at 1st floor far right; projecting gable at far right with oculus.
INTERIOR: of exceptional quality throughgout, with 27th and 18th century-style detailing virtually unaltered, including all ceiling cornices and plasterwork, chimneypieces and most bathroom ceramics and fixtures. Individual features of note include: Doric marble columns in antis at porch with large fanlight and door; compartmentalised ceiling with Tudor rose and monogram motifs at outer hall with tripartite bowed door and mannered astragals; large inner hall with oak wainscot, massive Jacobean-style marble chimneypiece with cast-iron grate; scale and platt staircase with open-work balusters and large tripartite stained glass window; festoon plasterwork and ornate chimneypiece in dining room; hardwood panelling, Corinithian columns, pilasters and plasterwork in billiard room; large Eagle range 'G H Nicoll and Co, Dundee'; early cast-iron radiator at landing; 'Twyford EDINBURGH combined housemaid's sink and slop hopper'; decorative cast-iron spiral staircae to tower observation room; flower pattern leaded and stained windows in old billiard room (mezzanine added).
CONSERVATORY: large T-plan consrvatory at E elevation.
GATEPIERS AND ENCLOSING WALL: 4 mannered, copped ashlar gatepiers, plus 1 removed to S of new (1989) sheltered housingblock. Rubble wall at W and at Strathern Road modified by new building.
LAMP STANDARD: decorative cast-iron lamp standard in drive.
TERRACE WALL: terrace wall of S of house, snecked rubble with semi-circular balustrade and moulded coping; steps at E and W.