Description

Circa 1840; later alterations and additions. 2-storey, 3-bay, now asymmetrical Gothic villa with attic and basement to rear and single storey wings. Painted stugged ashlar to principal elevation and wings; coursed sandstone ashlar to sides and rear with polished dressings. Base course with roll-moulding. Finialled gables.

S (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: main house: projecting piended porch in re-entrant angle bay, pilasters supporting bracketed, decorative frieze and triangular pediment; architraved window above to 1st floor. To right, canted bay window with decorative parapet, partially concealing sill of 1st floor architraved window, hood-moulded with wallhead gable and ball and spike finial. Advanced, gabled bay to left: canted bay window with decorative parapet; hood-moulded bipartite window above to 1st floor; ball and spike finial to gablehead. To left of main house: single storey wing with tall tripartite window in shallow advanced gabled bay. To right of main house: single storey wing with 3 regularly placed, architraved windows; niches between windows, added in the later 19th century. Adjoining to right: out house addition with door to left; further older "toll house" building adjoining to right.

W ELEVATION: blind gable of main house with side of painted, extended bay to right. Blind gable of single storey wing adjoining both to ground floor level.

N (REAR) ELEVATION: irregularly fenestrated basement. Door to off-centre right of raised ground floor, accessed by flight of ashlar steps with metal handrail and stone entrance plat; window to outer bays flanking door. To ?-storey, elongated staircase window leading to 1st floor, paired windows to left, single widow to right. Dormer to outer bays of attic. To left of main house: rear elevation of adjoined wing with central window to raised ground floor. Rear elevation of outhouse wing to left with central tripartite window at raised ground floor level; blind rear of tollhouse to far left; all basement levels not seen. To right of main house, rear elevation of adjoined wing with central window to raised ground floor.

E ELEVATION: main house with 3 stepped gables adjoining. Main house to rear with windows to outer bays of 1st floor, window to left now blind and partially concealed by gable of painted lower wing. Smaller outhouse gable adjoining painted wing gable; gable of former "toll house" adjoining this.

5- and 10-pane lying-pane, timber sash and case windows to principal and side elevations. Some 2-pane timber sash and case windows to attic bays and rear of E wing. N staircase window with glazed margins. Piended grey slate roof with aluminium ridging, flashings and valleys. Pair of piended, timber attic dormers with slated cheeks to main house. Painted cast-iron rainwater goods; gutters within cornice, downpipes concealed in angles. Corbelled, wide, gablehead stacks to main house: 4 pyramidal neck copes with inset cans. Smaller, wide gablehead stacks to end of single storey wings, inset plain cans. Paired ashlar gablehead stacks to E gable of outhouse addition.

INTERIOR: timber panelled entrance door leading to semi-glazed inner hall door.

BOUNDARY WALL AND GATEPIERS: low, painted ashlar boundary wall to front; remains of former wrought-iron railings apparent in 2-course wall. 2 pairs of much lowered gatepiers with moulded pyramidal caps. Further lowered pier to angle of boundary wall with No.12, pyramidal cushion cap surmounting. Brick boundary wall to E of property.

Statement of Interest

B-Group with Dick Institute, 10 London Road and 12 London Road. London Road leads out of Kilmarnock to the east. Along with Portland and Dundonald Roads, London Road was viewed as a fashionable address in the 19th century. Originally, a few classical villas were set along this semi-rural road, with open aspects to the south and north. This villa probably began as a plain classical buiding, but was later aggrandised in the Gothic style. The stone building attached to the end of the range may have the tollhouse which once operated at the junction of Holehouse and London Road. The villa is now in the use of East Ayrshire Council as offices, and ground to the rear houses a staff car park.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q56642479

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

• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)