Ancillary Building, Hepburn Hall, Hepburn Gardens, St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife

Description

James Gillespie & Scott, dated 1913. 2-storey and attic, 5-bay, L-plan house with 2-storey extension converted to flats circa 2000. Narrow blocks of rock-faced rubble and droved quoins. Raised base and band courses, and eaves cornice. Some bracketted cills with roll-moulded window margins and some Gibbsian window margins; keystones; voussoirs; stone mullions.

SE (GARDEN) ELEVATION: symmetrical. Projecting balustraded bay to centre at ground with wide-centre tripartite window, single windows on returns and banded angles; timber door with deep 6-pane fanlight and adjacent window to left, both with elongated keystone; keystoned window with relieving arch in bay to left and canted 3-light windows to outer bays, that to right with steps up to centre french door. 1st floor with keystoned, wide-centre tripartite to centre bay, windows in flanking bays and canted windows to outer bays below piends with 3 small flat-roofed dormers to centre.

NW (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: corniced and balustraded porch to centre bay with segmental-headed, keystoned, deeply moulded doorway and panelled timber door angled to right, and small similarly-detailed window on bracketted cill angled to left; window immediately to left at ground and 3 regularly disposed small windows above. Tiny window to outer left at ground below keystoned stair window with band course forming transom; low flat-roofed dormer window above. Slightly projecting bay to right of centre with bipartite window to left and single window to right at ground and further small single window to left at 1st floor. Right return of advanced wing to outer left with full-height projecting stack and blind panel below projecting stone flanked by bipartite windows at ground and further bipartite window below paired semicircular pediment to right at 1st floor, and single window breaking lowered eaves line into triangular-pedimented dormerhead to left. Circa 2000 single storey flat-roofed stone porch addition. 3-bay piend-roofed extension beyond to left with 3 windows to ground and further windows in centre and right bays at 1st floor.

SW ELEVATION: bay to right of centre at ground with mutuled cornice and keystoned semicircular pediment over centre light of tripartite window (left light blocked), 2 windows to centre and bipartite in bay to left; 1st floor with moulded panel dated '1913' to right, single window to centre and wide-centre tripartite in bay to left; metal fire escape ladder to right of centre, and small flat-roofed dormer window above.

NE ELEVATION: variety of elements to asymmetrical bay including projecting single storey semi-octagonal bay clasping right angle of projecting block to left, and extension to right.

Largely small-pane upper over plate glass lower sashes in timber sash and case windows: coloured leaded glass to stair, hall and porch windows. Grey slates. Shouldered and coped, ashlar and rock-faced stacks with some cans; ashlar-coped skews to dormerheads; swept roof with deeply overhanging eaves; cast-iron downpipes with decorative rainwater hoppers.

INTERIOR: good decorative scheme in place including plain cornices, boarded timber dadoes and brass sash lifts. Porch with panelled dado and concave soffits; hall with timber screen, and coloured glass to door; panelled dado to timber staircase with turned balusters and carved square-section newel posts. Principal room (centre SE at ground) with round-headed arches containing decoratively-astragalled display cupboards over arcaded shelves flanking classically-detailed fireplace with panelled overmantel, decorative frieze, cornice and flanking fluted columns with crocket capitals; segmental-headed window arches, that to tripartite with windowseat on turned legs; modillioned cornice and 6 plasterwork ceiling roses. Sliding doors to adjoining smaller room with timber Arts and Crafts style fireplace with tall overmantel and inset Delft tiles with Oriental figures; press with carved and decoratively-astragalled doors. 1st floor with most original Arts and Crafts style panelled timber fireplaces with tiled slips. 1st floor with most original panelled timber Arts and Crafts style fireplaces with tiled slips.

ANCILLARY STRUCTURE: harled pavilion with 2 sets of broad part-glazed 2-leaf timber doors and 3 fluted timber columns below segmentally-arched latticework frieze.

GARDEN AND BOUNDARY WALLS AND GATEPIERS: low rubble walls to designed features of garden, including circular garden and steps; semicircular-coped squared rubble and random rubble boundary walls. Ball-finialled, square-section, corniced ashlar gatepiers with quadrants to NW, and square-coped piers with timber gate to NE.

Statement of Interest

A good example of the work of local architects Gillespie & Scott. Hepburn Hall is finely-detailed with many original features. The survival of the distinctive glazing pattern, tall chimneystacks and good interior details are all notable.

Hepburn Gardens is characterised by large villa construction, predominantly in the Arts and Crafts tradition with many of the properties (including Hepburn Hall) having extensive gardens stretching to the picturesque Lade Braes Walk.

Built for David McGaw in 1913, and called 'The Ridge', the building was purchased and renamed in 1947 by St Andrews University. It remained a hall of residence until 1998 and was converted to flats around 2000. The garden elevation overlooks the contemporary designed landscape comprising gently terraced formal gardens with pond.

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