Burston House And Kingsmuir Hotel

Burston House and Kingsmuir Hotel are a pair of semi-detached villas dating from approximately 1840 to 1860. They are constructed of stucco over brick, with a hipped slate roof and stucco stacks. Ashlar dressings are used throughout. The buildings follow a double-depth plan with side stairhalls.

The villas are three storeys tall, with a basement and attic level, and feature four first-floor windows, with narrower, set-back entrance bays on either side. Stucco detailing includes quoins to the angles; tooled architraves to the windows, with those on the ground floor featuring open segmental pediments extended by a cornice on corbel brackets. A moulded sill band projects beneath the first-floor windows, with decorative feet, while a similar band on the second floor has a decorative apron below the windows. The ground floor windows are tripartite with 1/1 sashes, the central sashes being round-arched. First-floor windows are tripartite, with a 4/4 cambered-headed sash flanked by 2/2 sashes, and two further 2/2 horizontal-pane sashes with cambered heads. The second floor has a tripartite window with a 4/4 cambered-headed sash between 2/2 sashes, and two further 4/4 cambered-headed sashes; the outer windows on this floor have eared surrounds. Flights of steps lead to four-fielded-panel doors with overlights, set within round-arched recesses with vermiculated jambs and alternating vermiculated and plain voussoirs to the head. A moulded eaves band is surmounted by brackets supporting the wide eaves, and roof lights are visible in the attic.

The interior of the buildings has not been inspected. The Circus on which they stand was laid out between 1839 and 1840 by Cope, on land acquired from Joseph Pitt, although the Pittville Estate’s basic layout was designed by John Forbes.