Description

Later 18th century, enlarged and recast circa 1804; altered by James Gillespie & Scott 1885/6, 1902/9, 1945/6. Tall 2-storey and attic, 3-bay, pedimented classical mansion with parapet, piended roof and twin stacks. Lower 2-storey wing to E adjoining single and 2-storey offices. Ashlar with rusticated quoins. Eaves cornice with parapet blocking course. Stone mullions.

N (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: slightly advanced bay to centre with later pilastered porch with windows on returns, cornice and blocking course, further projecting Roman Doric-columned doorpiece and 2-leaf panelled timber door; 2 windows above giving way to pediment with wheel-astragalled circular window in tympanum. 2 windows to each floor of flanking bays.

S ELEVATION: 3-bay elevation. Broad, full-height, bowed centre bay with flanking full-height pilaster strips and tall tripartite window to each floor, that to ground with pilaster-mullions and hoodmould; 2 windows to each floor of flanking bays.

W ELEVATION: later tall tripartite window with pilaster-mullions in slightly advanced segmentally-arched rectangular bay at ground; 2 windows to 1st floor (that to right false), and dormer window off-centre right behind parapet.

E ELEVATION: projecting lower 2-storey offices (see below).

12-pane glazing pattern in timber sash and case windows. Segmental-headed, lead-roofed, slate-hung dormer windows. Grey slates. Coped ashlar ridge stacks. Cast-iron downpipes with decorative rainwater hoppers.

INTERIOR: decorative plasterwork cornices and architraved, 6-panelled timber doors. Part-glazed 2-leaf screen door with deep 3-part fanlight and tall flanking small-pane lights leading to hall with winding stair and oval landing. 3 principal ground floor rooms, centre and W with classical (gilded gesso?) pelmets.

OFFICES: slated with small-pane glazing patterns in timber sash and case windows.

N ELEVATION: recessed bay to outer right (adjoining house) with window to each floor; steeply-pitched roof piended range with 3 windows projecting to left, return to right with window in shaped screen wall and dormer window above. Further single storey range with 3 windows beyond to left, and isolated single bay to outer left.

S ELEVATION: 5 recessed bays, that to left taller and piended with window to each floor. Lower bays to right with 4 windows to each floor, those to centre at 1st floor breaking eaves into pedimented dormerheads.

ANCILLARY BUILDING: octagonal former dairy, now potting shed, linked at NW angle, with centre roof ventilator opening. Door to W with casement window to each remaining face. Veranda supported on slender cast-iron columns. Interior with marble shelf on shaped stone supports.

WALLED GARDEN: walled garden to E with flat-coped rubble walls, pedestrian entrance to W with worn figurative (lion or bewigged human figure) sundial on coping. Wider opening with square-section gatepiers to N, and remains of lean-to glasshouses to NE.

Statement of Interest

Commissioned by James Stark, Kingsdale House was sold on his death in October 1803 to Miss Balfour who remodelled and enlarged it shortly thereafter. Gifford mentions flanking piend-roofed pavilions, evidence of that to W can still be seen (1999).

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17795007

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

• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period property manual, victorian house manual 2 books collection set by ian rock
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)