Description

Frederick Pilkington, 1874. 2-storey and attic, roughly 5-bay Second Empire style villa (now a boarding house) with prominent full height bowed bay to centre and slightly advanced and pilastered terminal bays. Sandstone ashlar; channelled at ground floor pilasters. Moulded string course at ground floor; bracketed moulded cill course at 1st floor. Corniced eaves course with blind balustrade above; urns to balustrade piers. Moulded architraved surrounds at ground, 1st and attic floors. Bipartite windows at ground floor flanking arcaded round arched windows to bowed bay. Similar arrangement at 1st floor with segmental arched windows (apart from at bowed bay). Segmental arched bipartite sandstone ashlar dormers to attic flanking bowed bay; shaped dormer to centre of bowed bay with foliate panel to apex. Later single storey, flat roofed additions to S and W.

Porte-cochère to E elevation, forming advanced single storey block. Coursed squared rubble an channelled sandstone ashlar. Large round arched carriage doorways to N and S; crest above doorway to N with urn to left.

FORMER COACH HOUSE: 2-storey (with some 1st floor windows breaking wallhead) former coach house set to SW of main house. Coursed squared sandstone with some sandstone ashlar dressings and quoins. Band course at ground floor, banded cill course at 1st floor; corniced eaves course. Large triangular sandstone ashlar dormers to S elevation with shaped sides and moulded ashlar skews. Fielded panel and shaped finial to dormer apex.

Predominantly plate glass in timber sash and case windows. Multi-pitch roof, grey slates; shouldered corniced ashlar wallhead stacks with modern clay cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: now in use as boarding accommodation for pupils at Stewart's Melville College. Richly decorative classical scheme still broadly retained throughout. Large hall with Corinthian pilasters and consoled cornice with all principal rooms off it through double leaf doors with large doorcases. Drawing room to N (now subdivided 2008) with Louis XV panelling and white marble chimneypiece. Dining room to W. Former porte-cochere now used as a room with later lowered ceiling. Large Imperial staircase with carved scrollwork balustrades ending in winged dragons. Large Venetian window with elaborate stained glass. Large coffered ceiling over stair with foliate console brackets and central cupola. Upper floors with later alterations to form dormitories.

Statement of Interest

A-group with Stewart's Melville College, Art Hall and entrance lodge (see separate listing). Dean Park House is an outstanding example of the later work of Frederick Pilkington, in Second Empire Style. The design exhibits a high degree of ornamentation to both the principal exterior façade and to the interior. The majority of this high quality decoration has remained unchanged despite later alterations and additions. The villa is on a particularly grand scale, and is amongst Pilkington's best work. The house was built for the geologist S L Jolly who had feued the ground from the College, although they later bought it back in 1962/3.

Frederick Pilkington worked predominantly in Edinburgh, Penicuik and in the Scottish Borders, although he did also complete works in both Ayrshire and Bute. After training in mathematics at the University of Edinburgh, his first architectural works were a series of highly geometric churches exhibited to the Royal Scottish Academy. By the early 1860s he had begun to build some churches, predominantly in Venetian or Roamesque styles. His interest in the monumental and in aspects of Romanesque detailing can also be seen in the residential work he completed during this period, both at Dean Park House and at Stoneyhill House in Peebleshire (see separate listing).

List description revised as part of resurvey (2009).

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17576788

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)