Gatepiers And Gates, Claremont Including Boundary Walls, 2 Queen's Road

Gatepiers and Gates, Claremont Including Boundary Walls, 2 Queen's Road

A substantial villa dating from 1901-2, this is a tall 2-storey and attic building of 4 bays arranged in an L-plan, dominated by a polygonal corner tower with decorative leadwork to its roof. The design incorporates a gabled porch and contains a very fine interior.

The external walls employ a variety of materials: narrow and broad stugged ashlar bands and rusticated ashlar on the principal elevations, with squared and snecked rubble to the west and north sides. Stugged and polished ashlar dressings are used throughout, including a base course, band courses and cill courses to the tower and canted windows. The tower features a modillioned cornice. A segmental-arched, voussoired doorpiece and stone mullions are characteristic details.

The principal elevation to King's Road presents a single-storey porch to the 2 centre bays at ground level, with a diagonally-boarded base surmounted by multi-pane glazing. The gabled doorway at the left contains a panelled timber door in a segmental-arched frame with decorative bevelled glazing to the side and top lights. Above this, a tripartite window rises to the 1st floor on the left, while a blank rusticated ashlar bay to the right breaks the eaves line into a dominant battered stack. A gabled bay to the outer left features a full-height canted window, and a finialled corner tower occupies the outer right, containing 3 windows on each floor with a part-glazed timber door with coloured glass fanlight in the re-entrant angle at ground level, providing access to the porch.

The east elevation facing Queen's Road is anchored by the tower to the left angle. The centre bay at ground contains a decoratively-astragalled window with coloured glass, a small offset window above, and a gabled bay to the right with canted windows at ground and a tripartite arrangement above, with a narrow light in the gablehead. The west elevation is relatively plain, incorporating a lower service wing to the outer left and an inglenook to the outer right at ground level. The north elevation displays a variety of elements, with a dominant decoratively-astragalled stair window at its centre.

The windows predominantly feature plate glass glazing in timber sash and case frames, although the stair window is a particularly fine example with multi-pane leaded and coloured glazing, supplemented by external secondary glazing. The tower windows include top lights with plain multi-pane leaded glazing, while the inglenook features similar leaded glazing. The roof is finished in grey slates, with banded and coped ashlar stacks topped with cans. Deep overhanging eaves with exposed rafter ends and pierced bargeboarding are characteristic of the design.

The interior contains a fine and largely intact decorative scheme. Access to the stairhall is via a screen door leading to elaborate plasterwork cornicing and a broad keystoned segmental arch supported on fluted pilasters. The walls incorporate stepped, lugged architraves and panelled timber doors. The dog-leg staircase features decorative timber balusters and carved square-section newel posts with obelisk finials, matching those found on the external gatepiers.

The southwest room features a compartmented ceiling with mutuled cornice and a broad segmental arch on paired fluted pilasters opening into an inglenook. The inglenook contains a panelled overmantel with mirror and a sunburst-pattern fireplace of small glazed fire bricks, with some wall panelling. The dining room is distinguished by a bowed door, a corniced and bracketed firesurround with swag frieze, and a folding dividing door providing access to the tower room, where decorative 'scrollwork icing' is applied to the tower angle. Decorative brass door furniture and timber fireplaces to the service wing complete the scheme. A maid's box bearing the maker's mark 'D J J M Mitchell' of Stonehaven lists rooms including Front Door, Back Door, Dining Room, Drawing Room, Library and 5 Bedrooms.

The boundary treatment comprises low saddleback-coped walls with inset railings. Flanking the entrance are square-section rusticated ashlar gatepiers with fluted frieze, cornice and obelisk finials, associated with 2-leaf decorative ironwork gates incorporating a centre band inscribed 'CLAREMONT'.