Description

John Honeyman, 1858; additions by Peat and Duncan, 1888. Gabled 2-storey over semi-basement, 6-bay irregular-plan Tudor gothic villa. Squared, stugged and snecked cream sandstone; ashlar dressings. Plinth; interrupted string course; ashlar mullioned windows; hoodmoulds; moulded reveals; finialled decorated bargeboarded gables, overhanging eaves.

S (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: trefoil and quatrefoil openings to semi-basement. Advanced crenellated porch set in re-entrant angle off-centre left above flight of steps flanked by stepped coped walls with trefoil decoration, 4-centred-arch doorway, chamfered and moulded reveals with nook-shafts, moulded hoodmould with decorated label-stops, 2-leaf boarded doors, tripartite vestibule door with nook-shafts, 4-centred arch window on return to left. 4-centred-arch window to 1st floor above porch. Taller gabled bay to right, canted window at ground with crenellated parapet; shouldered-arch window above at 1st floor set in pointed-arch recess with columns to reveals and carved decoration to tympanum. Bay to far right with 2 narrow 4-centred arch windows at ground flanking buttress supporting canted oriel above with cornice, blocking course, fishscale polygonal roof. Later (1888) gabled bay to outer right, set obliquely at SE angle with deep full-height 5-light bow window, moulded apron at 1st floor, crenellated parapet, attic window to gablehead set in pointed-arch recess. Bay to left of entrance with window at ground, gabled dormerheaded window breaking eaves above. Slightly advanced gabled bay to outer left, canted window at ground with crenellated parapet, window above at 1st floor.

W (SIDE) ELEVATION: W return of S wing with gabled bay to centre, 4-centred window with decorated label-stops to hoodmould breaking into gablehead, stack to gablehead. Advanced gabled wing to left.

E (SIDE) ELEVATION: balnk to E return of S wing.

N (REAR) ELEVATION: 2-storey service wing to rear with gabled bays. Gabled bay to centre with 3 round-headed windows to stair at 1st floor (one blocked by enclosed forestair to number 48).

Mostly plate glass sash and case windows. Grey slate roof; corniced ashlar stacks.

INTERIOR: encaustic tiles to vestibule, stained glass to vestibule window (depicting a knight) and door (flowers with birds to fanlight). Geometric plasterwork to vestibule, coffered hall, decorative dining room plasterwork and coved ceiling in music room at 1st floor.

Fine carvied doors to main reception rooms with panelled doors, surrounds with colonnettes, stained galss fanlights to dining room and vestibule to E entrance, with figurative roundels to centre; full-height stained glass panels to pointed-arch doorway to music room with Aestetic Movement sunflower motifs and figuartive roundel to centre. Corniced ceiling to parlour with Adamesque style chimneypiece. Dining room with gothic panelled shutters; carved dado; substantial galleried timber chimneypiece with squat columns flanking and tall finialled overmantle; 2 tier elaborately decorated cornice, floreate frieze and geometrical plasterwork with decorated rose to centre. Timber balustraded stair remaining in upper residence, removed from lower villa.

Stained glass: to porch, figure of knight by Oscar Paterson and panels noted above.

LODGE: almost covered by vegetation (1991). 1858. Single storey rectangular block with broader semi-circular projection to S, 2-stage circular crenellated tower in re-entrant angle to E. Squared stugged snecked cream sandstone, ashlar dressings. Narrow cusp-headed lancets those to curved S elevation set in pointed-arch headed frame with hoomoulds. Corbelled parapet to S projection, slate roof to N wing. Plate glass windows.

BOUNDARY WALL AND GATEPIERS: cream sandstone rubble ashlar coped. Octagonal gatepiers with nook-shafts, corbelled crenellated caps.

Statement of Interest

Villa divided into 2 residences. Very fine gothic villa enchanced by the 1888 additions by Peat and Duncan. Splendid interior with crisply detailed plasterwork, high quality joinery and rich array of stained glass panels to doors, fanlights and windows dating from the 1888 works. The lower part of the stairs was unfortunately removed when the villa was subdivided. See also 15 Kings Crescent formerly Towerville lodge, listed separately.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17777022

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

• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period property manual, victorian house manual 2 books collection set by ian rock
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey