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Summary

Description

F T Pilkington & J Murray Bell, circa 1870-1875. 1½ storey, 3-bay, roughly square-plan villa with French Gothic detailing. Snecked dressed whinstone to N, E and S; coursed rubble to W (rear); raised smooth ashlar quoins; base course; carved eaves course. Highly decorative carved stone dressings; column mullions with carved foliate capitals; carved dormers and chimneystacks; decorative ironwork. Fine cornicing and plasterwork to interior.

E (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: central stone porch, plain shafted engaged columns with foliate capitals, truncated pitched roof, round-arched entrance, wrought-iron cresting, double timber panelled doors; plain round-arched fanlight. Small half-moon rooflight above. Slightly advanced gabled bay to right with canted tripartite ground floor window, round arched openings set within canted architraves, plain shafted engaged columns with foliate capitals, moulded and carved parapet with wrought-iron cresting. Canted window to gablehead above. Wrought-iron finial to gable apex. 2-light box window to left of porch with similar treatment as that to right with narrow side-lights. Truncated pitched dormer with slate cheeks and wrought-iron finial above.

N ELEVATION: 2 round-arched ground floor windows, chamfered architraves. 2 truncated pitched dormers with slate cheeks and wrought-iron finial above.

S (REAR) ELEVATION: central, small piended timber porch linked to rectangular full-height stairtower with round-arched, etched-glass window. Single-storey piended lavatory, coal shed, and wash house to left. 1½ storey piended kitchen wing to left with early 20th century box dormer.

W ELEVATION: central ground floor window to slightly recessed kitchen wing; small round-arched dormer. Corbelled-out section adjoining kitchen wing to E section (housing internal flue).

Predominantly 4-pane timber sash and case windows. Pitched and piended roofs; purple and grey slates. Original cast-iron gutters with decorative embossed heads at regular intervals (to rear). Coped and carved gablehead and ridge stacks; straight ashlar skews; Gothic 'cap-house' skewputts.

INTERIOR: margin-paned glazed door to vestibule with secondary round-arched fanlight; deep dentilled cornice to hall with plaster putti brackets; dogleg stair with mahogany handrail and substantial, pierced cast-iron balusters. Black stone pilastered chimneypiece to dining room (later Art Nouveau tiled fire-surround with blue tiled hearth); deep double cornice of anthemion and palmette and dog tooth motifs; highly intricate foliate and floral plaster cast ceiling rose; working shutters. Grey veined, white marble pilastered chimneypiece to drawing room (plain tiled fire-surround with brass hood); deep double cornice of rose and ribbon and anthemion and palmette motifs; intricate cartouche, scroll and fleur-de-lis ceiling rose; working shutters. Scullery still in use as such. Original layout to upper-floor with addition of later bathroom.

Statement of Special Interest

A fine, virtually unaltered example of high Victorian architectural and decorative design with extreme attention to detail. The details and motifs used here almost certainly in the style of F T Pilkington (1832-1898) and this particular combination of motifs (such as the variety of window shapes, stilted arches, bountiful vegetation at the captials, canted gables) point to this architect's partnership with J M Bell (1839-1877). However, details such as the 'tunnel dormers' point to a later date similar to the Eastern Club, Dundee (1868) and Moffat Hydropathic, 1877 (both demolished). At Viewforth, the vigorousness of Pilkington's church decoration has been scaled down for domestic purposes. This house is located to the S of Inverkeithing and was built on high ground to the SW of the main road from North Queensferry. There is a raised garden to the rear of the property.

References

Bibliography

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