Elmslie House

Elmslie House is a large suburban villa built around 1864 by Edmund Wallace Elmslie for himself, with later 19th-century and early 20th-century additions by Dr. Archibald Weir. The sculptor William Forsyth, who carried out considerable work for Elmslie, contributed to the building's decoration. The house is constructed of rock-faced walling with ashlar dressings and a plain tile roof, rising two storeys with an attic and basement.

The east-facing elevation has three bays. The central bay is wider and features a projecting square bay window at basement and ground floor levels with ashlar walling. Between the ground floor lights stand columns with marble shafts and carved capitals, while the pierced parapet above contains quatrefoils. The two first floor windows above this bay display alternating grey and cream voussoirs. The first floor windows flanking the central bay each contain paired lancets with a quatrefoil above at the centre. Arched and moulded timber posts rise from projecting brackets that form part of the string course between ground and first floors, supporting timber arches which connect with the barge boards. All three bays are topped with gables, those at either side having half-hipped caps. A billiard room extension projects to the right, recessed from the main façade, and features an open loggia at basement level with a five-light mullioned window to the ground floor.

The south front is partially buried at basement level. At the right stands a broad gabled bay, and to its centre is a projecting bay with a semi-circular end. This bay is elaborately decorated with mullioned and transomed cusped lights set in recessed panels topped with nailhead decoration. A running band of foliage decoration runs at eaves level, and at the centre is a round-arched doorway for a pair of curved French windows. The tiled roof is apsidal with a cast iron finial. At either side are two-light windows at ground floor level, and first floor windows with striped voussoirs are positioned above. Projecting brackets indicate that this gable originally supported carved wooden posts rising to connect with the bargeboards, though these have since been removed.

The west-facing drive front has a projecting gabled porch wing flanked by buttresses with offsets. At the centre is a broad arch with heavy hood mould, containing a porch door to the left and a two-light window to the right. Short marble columns with deeply carved capitals and foliage ornament are positioned at either side and centre. At first floor level above, a tri-partite window has an arched centre light flanked by flat-headed lights, with banded marble columns between them. Moulded posts and bargeboards rise into the gable space as before. First floor gabled windows with similar posts and bargeboards flank the porch bay. Other fenestration on this front is randomly distributed, including a five-light transomed window with cusped lights to the ground floor at left. The projecting billiard room at far left features two porthole windows.

The interior is entered through an entrance hall reached by a short flight of broad steps, which has encaustic tiles to the floor and a stone fire surround. A wide corridor with a further stone fire surround leads north to the billiard room. Three rooms facing east are interconnected. The central room serves as the present dining room and has fixed seating within the square bay. The room to its north contains a stone window seat forming part of the window surround. The majority of ground floor rooms retain their original stone fire surrounds, including an elaborate example in the drawing room with carved spandrels and marble columns. The room west of the corridor has wainscot panelling to the lower wall and end-stopped ceiling beams. Panelled doors are original, and the entrances to the billiard room and present bar room include glazed screens with half-glazed doors.

The staircase to the first floor has stone treads and winds around three sides of an open well. The balusters are formed as a colonnade with cusped arches connecting them and quatrefoils below the moulded handrail. Fire surrounds at first floor level are of stone, while those to the attics are of wood.

The basement has clay tile floors with cooking ranges in the original kitchen and scullery. Glass screens and semi-glazed doors allow light into the centre. Larders have metal racks for hanging meat, and a pantry retains slate shelves and a door with panels of metal mesh.