St Kilda and Forecourt Railings

St Kilda is a house located on High Street in Saffron Walden, dating from the 18th century and early 19th century. It features a timber frame and is rendered with ashlar, although the front is painted and rendered brick. The roof is gabled and covered in slate, with projecting stacks at the center of each gable. The building has two storeys, attics, and a cellar.

The front has two small flat-roofed dormers. On the first floor, there are five double-hung sash windows with 12 panes each, complemented by shaped external valances. The ground floor includes two canted parapeted bay windows with stucco cornices and double-hung sash windows featuring central vertical glazing bars. A central pedimented Tuscan doorcase with half columns surrounds the door, which has four raised and fielded panels and a fanlight with patterned glazing bars.

Access to the entrance is via a flight of eight stone steps, which has an early 19th-century wrought-iron handrail with cross pattern supports. These steps lead to curved mid-19th-century cast-iron spear-topped railings that enclose raised planting beds. There are two bootscrapers flanking the steps.

The north flank elevation shows the side of a rear wing, which is also rendered with ashlar and features a full flank stack with some blue headers. A double-hung sash window with 30 small panes is located on the first floor, above a two-light casement. The rear elevation includes a projecting gabled stair tower and a two-storey extension with a lean-to roof and a projecting upper floor. The rear wing to the north has a hipped slate roof and a small-pane double-hung sash window on the first floor.

Inside, there is a fireplace with a fluted frieze in the south ground floor room. The first floor of the rear wing contains a remarkable small room, possibly a garden room, featuring mid-18th-century painted panelling, full-height fluted Doric pilasters, an enriched frieze, and an eared over-mantel panel. The east wall has projecting wing walls that enclose a window seat with a 12-pane double-hung sash window, thick glazing bars, and folding shutters on the flanks.