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Summary

Description

William Hogg and Mitchell 1904. 2-storey and attic, 3-bay house with mansard roof and lavish interior decoration. Squared and snecked dressed rubble with red sandstone ashlar dressings. Ashlar base course to front, eaves cornice and blocking course with crenellated windowheads. Segmental-headed, keystoned doorcase; stone mullions.

W (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: symmetrical. Centre bay doorcase with Ionic pilasters and dentilled pediment; deep-set panelled timber door with flanking lights and 3-part, depressed-arch fanlight, all glazing leaded, coloured and decorative-astragalled: window at 1st floor. Flanking bays with canted tripartite window to each floor, those to 1st floor with crenellated parapets, and flat-roofed, corniced, tripartite dormer windows above.

N ELEVATION: advanced, piend and pitch-roofed inglenook with small lights on returns to right of centre at ground; large tripartite stair window to centre bay and further windows to outer bays at 1st floor. Dominant shouldered stack breaking eaves to right of centre and further stack to left.

S ELEVATION: modern door to left of centre at ground and dominant stack breaking eaves above; window to centre bay and bipartite window to right at each floor with dormer window (as above) over outer bay. Lower 2-storey wing to outer right with bipartite window to ground and further bipartite breaking eaves above; lower blank bay beyond to right.

E ELEVATION: asymmetrical fenestration with wallhead stack and projecting bay to left.

4-pane and plate glass glazing patterns to timber sash and case windows. 12-pane glazing pattern in casement windows to dormers. Stair and inglenook windows leaded, coloured and decorative- astragalled. Grey slates. Cavetto-coped ashlar stacks and cast-iron downpipes with decorative rainwater hoppers and fixings.

INTERIOR: ornate Art-Nouveau and classically influenced interior decorative schemes. Dado rails, decorative plasterwork friezes, cornices and ceilings. Vestibule with decorative plasterwork, tiled mosaic floor of bordered garland and letter 'K' (see Notes); screen door with coloured and decorative-astragalled glass. Inner hall with pilastered, keystoned arch and decorative plasterwork. Dog-leg stair with turned timber balusters, corniced decorative newel posts, pendant finials and decorative stair window. Room to NW at ground with strapwork ceiling and bellflower swag frieze, panelled dado and soffits: fluted Ionic pilasters and mutuled cornice below embossed frieze of 'muses plucking fruit' (indicating Dining Room function) frame buffet recess with panelled walls, timber fireplace with egg-and- dart moulding, carved centre panel with swag and flanking consoles, bowed cornice and picture panel overmantel. Some timber fireplaces. Lantern to attic with moulded plinth and dogtooth cornice.

BOUNDARY WALLS: saddleback-coped, coursed rubble boundary walls with inset railings and square gatepiers.

Statement of Special Interest

Formerly used by (and still the property of) BT, Wemyssfield House was taken over in 1996 by Kirkcaldy Chamber of Commerce on a 15 year lease. The Dean of Guild court approved plans in January 1904, for a villa at Wemyssfield, 'Lothrie Bank', for a Mrs Kinninmonth, hence the vestibule floor design incorporating the letter 'K'. In 1914 the building was converted to a temperance hotel, known as the Crown, by Thomas Menzies. Dean of Guild Records show a connection between the Kinninmonth family and 'Lothrie Aerated Water Works'. The architects William Hogg and Mitchell practiced from 26 Frederick Street, Edinburgh.

References

Bibliography

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