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Summary

Description

Dated 1866; converted to offices 1919; extension 1923, linked with

St Margaret's, East Fergus Place (listed separately) 1938. 2-storey, 3-bay, piend and platform-roofed Italianate villa with tower; and 2-storey, 7-bay wing to W.

STAIRARD: polished ashlar with channelled quoin strips; squared and snecked dressed rubble to rear. Base and moulded string courses, eaves cornice with blocking course; cill course and mutuled cavetto cornice to tower. Round-headed openings, pedimented window, architraved surrounds and dogtooth mouldings to ground floor windowheads; stop- chamfered arrises and stone mullions.

E (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: bay to centre with 3 steps and flanking fielded piers (that to left retaining urn finial with carved masque and floreate detail) leading to round-headed doorcase with part-fluted engaged colonnettes with floreate capitals, decorative moulding, keystone and carved spandrels; 2-leaf panelled timber door with semi- circular plate glass fanlight: flanking pilasters with carved consoles supporting small stone balustrade at foot of architraved and pedimented 1st floor window. Tower breaking eaves above with keystoned, tripartite, colonnaded window; further round-headed. keystoned windows to N and S, and decorative cast-iron weathervane finial. Slightly advanced, full-height flanking bays, that to right with canted tripartite windows and that to left with bipartite windows.

N ELEVATION: windows in bays to centre and right at ground, and to outer bays at 1st floor; shouldered wallhead stack breaking eaves to centre.

W ELEVATION: round-headed stair window with datestone to centre at 1st floor, 2-storey link section to 1923 W wing adjoining at right and bipartite dormer window in mansard above.

S ELEVATION: centre bay with window to each floor and shouldered wallhead stack breaking eaves; further window to outer left at ground.

Plate glass glazing in timber sash and case windows; coloured and margined glass to stair window. Grey slates. Corbelled and banded ashlar stacks with full complement of decorative polygonal cans. Cast-iron downpipes with dated hoppers and decorative fixings.

INTERIOR: encaustic tiled floor to vestibule with inlaid initials 'FEA' (Fife Education Authority); modernised offices retain decorative cornicing and panelled shutters, marble fireplace to 1st floor office. Dog-leg stair with decorative cast-iron balusters, timber handrail and stair window with coloured decorative margins and 'The Abbey' (see Notes); pilastered round arch with pendant finial and segmental arches with moulded spandrels to 1st floor landing. Spiral stair with decorative cast-iron balusters and timber handrail to tower.

W WING: 1938, piend-roofed extension. Harled with channelled ashlar quoin strips. Base, cill and eaves courses. Segmental- and round-headed openings.

E (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: segmental-headed doorcase with broad channelled pilasters, consoled cornice, deep-set 2-leaf panelled timber door and sunburst-astragalled fanlight to centre at ground with bipartite windows in flanking bays and regular fenestration to 1st floor; link with Stairard projecting to left.

N ELEVATION: 5 tall, round-headed, decorative-astragalled windows to centre bays with slightly advanced flanking stair towers, that to left with tall round-headed window, that to right with canopied doorway and timber door with flanking narrow lights at ground, and windows to right and left at 1st floor.

S ELEVATION: symmetrical fenestration including advanced bay to outer left (latter also abutting rear of St Margaret's).

W ELEVATION: symmetrical fenestration including corniced doorway with modern door to left, advanced bays to right adjoining St Margaret's.

Small-pane glazing patterns in metal casement windows. Grey slates. Channelled ashlar stacks with cans.

INTERIOR: original panelled timber doors with etched glass panels; tiled toilet cubicles; decorative steel balusters and brass handrails, plain cornices and picture rails. Large open-plan office (former board room) to N with decorative-framed rooflight, round-headed windows and arches, mutuled and dogtooth-moulded cornice, fielded pilasters, pedimented doorcases with 2-leaf timber doors and decorative etched- glass panels. Rest room to S with panelled dado.

BOUNDARY WALLS AND GATEPIERS: saddleback-coped ashlar boundary walls with pyramidal-coped ashlar piers (reduced) to E; coped rubble boundary walls to N and S.

Statement of Special Interest

'Tower Villa' was sold by John Barnet (the original owner) to John Strachan for a price of ?2,300 in 1873, and again to John Hamilton Meikle (manager of Dundonald Colliery) in 1903. The latter gentleman changed the name to 'Stairard'. During the 1st World War the building was rented by the War Office, subsequently being sold to the local authority in 1919 for ?1500. The stair window decoration of 'The Abbey' derives from the coat-of-arms of the former Kirkcaldy Royal Burgh, and may have been inserted at this time. The W wing was added in 1923 at a cost of ?7,800, and a link to Sir Robert Rowand Anderson's 'St Margaret's', East Fergus Place, added in 1938.

References

Bibliography

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