Description

1860s. 2-storey and attic, 3-bay rectangular-plan house. Principal elevation; droved and stugged squared stone with ashlar base course, band course and eaves cornice, paterae, droved ashlar lintels surmounted by decorative, slightly raised overmantles to all openings (apart from dormers) chip-carved with anthemion and palmette motifs. Canted ground and 1st floor windows to 1st and 3rd bay. Tooled, snecked, squared rubble to other elevations.

SW (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: symmetrical elevation. Central doorpiece; double tapering pilasters with narrow glazed panels between. Flanking 3-light canted windows; moulded, recessed panels to each angle of base. Centred 1st floor window with raised, tapering ashlar surround, flanking 3-light canted bay windows.

NW ELEVATION: central ground floor door, inserted window to left. Centred 1st floor window.

NE (REAR) ELEVATION: central single storey outshot; centred window, door to right return, flanking bipartite windows to house. Tall, centred 1st floor round-headed stair window, flanking round-headed windows, rectangular windows to outer bays.

SE ELEVATION: centred ground floor door, centred 1st floor window above.

Timber panelled door, letterbox fanlight. Predominantly plate glass timber sash and case windows with horns. 2 canted piended dormer windows set above canted bays to SW elevation, 3 rectangular piended dormers to NE elevation; all with non-traditional windows. Pitched roof with grey slates, piended roof with grey slates to outshot. Solar panels to SW. Swept polygonal lead covers above eaves level to canted windows. Ashlar coped skews, corniced gable apex stacks, circular cans. Decorative rainwater head to far right of NW elevation.

INTERIOR: entrance vestibule; decorative Minton floor, tripartite pilastered timber and glass screen wall, central timber and glass panel door to main hall. Main hall; imperial stair with ornate cast iron balusters, timber handrail. Decorative plasterwork to ceilings throughout ground floor. Coloured glass to stair window. Large bracketed decorative arched opening to 1st floor stairwell.

BOUNDARY WALLS AND GATE PIERS: rubble boundary wall, heightened to SW. Rounded coping to SW, rubble coping elsewhere. Principal entrance to S; square-plan ashlar gatepiers with shallow pyramidal corniced caps. Side entrance to N; square-plan tooled gatepiers with shallow pyramidal caps.

Statement of Interest

NOTES: Whitehall is named after its first resident Dr George White, the local doctor in Aberdour and highlights the status and wealth held by the village doctor at this time. It is one of the larger and more impressive houses in the village. The house was set within sizeable grounds, a considerable amount of this has been lost with a modern house built in the later 20th century within the grounds to the S. Although Whitehall has experienced alterations including the dormers and solar panels it still retains many fine exterior and interior features. It is of interest to note that the door to the NW elevation was used as the patient?s entrance from the time the doctor would consult from home. Dr George White?s daughter Mary aged 21 in 1862 wrote a book entitled ?Beauties and Antiquities of Aberdour? evocatively detailing Aberdour and its environs.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing

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

• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)