20 The Mall, Montrose

20 The Mall, Montrose

A substantial 2-storey house with attic and basement, built circa 1816 with additions made circa 1840. The principal elevation presents a refined classical composition across three bays, finished in stugged sandstone ashlar. The sides are of squared rubble, while the later wing employs squared and snecked stonework. The building is defined by a ground and first-floor cill course, eaves cornice, and blocking course.

The principal west elevation features a raised platform approached by a four-step flight with wrought-iron balustrade that oversails the basement. The focal point is a central Doric doorpiece with full entablature, a rectangular fanlight with curvilinear glazing, and a six-panel door. Above this sits a first-floor window, with a basement window directly beneath. The flanking bays contain windows at basement, ground, and first-floor levels, topped by canted slate-hung dormers.

The south elevation terminates in a gable end to the left, with a first-floor window to the right and a blocked opening in the gablehead. A single-bay wing extends to the right, featuring paired basement windows, a ground-floor window, and a blinded first-floor window, with an offset canted dormer.

The east elevation is markedly asymmetrical, comprising four single-bay sections set progressively back. The rightmost section forms the rear of the original house, containing basement, ground (now blocked), and first-floor windows. A tower addition occupies the re-entrant angle to the left, with a blinded ground-floor window, first-floor window, basement door on its north-facing return, ground-floor window, and a small round-arch window at first-floor level. To the left stands a section with basement and ground-floor windows, and a stone-mullioned bipartite window rising to the first floor with chamfered margins. A gable-ended section completes the eastern side, with two ground-floor windows (the left blinded) and one first-floor window.

The north elevation presents a blank gable end to the right, with east wing additions set back to the left. A north-facing gable-ended section features a blocked first-floor window and a blocked round-arch window in the gablehead.

Throughout, windows are 12-pane timber sash and case, with later 6-pane glazing applied to the bipartite on the east. Grey slate pitched roofs feature stone skews and skew putts. Ashlar gablehead stacks rise from the north, south, and east elevations, with a tympany gable on the south elevation of the east wing. A full complement of polygonal chimneys tops the roof.

Internally, a vestibule with mutuled cornice leads through two-leaf panelled inner doors and sidelights into the entrance hall, spanned by a fine fanlight. Paired painted timber pilasters on the north and south walls mark the junction with the circa 1840 additions to the rear (east). The dining room features an apse end with a sideboard recess and flanking curved cupboards with glazed doors, and is dominated by a black marble chimney piece. Timber chimney pieces and mid-19th-century cast-iron grates feature throughout the remaining rooms. Ground-floor panelled doors with fluted architraves form part of the circa 1840 rebuilding. A cast-iron balustrade runs along the dog-leg staircase.

The property is bounded by rubble stone walls on all sides. The southwestern boundary wall forms the drive and sweeps down to a rusticated pier with urn. The west boundary facing the Mall is low and coped, with capped square-section corner piers and pyramidal caps marking the driveway entrance. Walls bounding the rear garden (east) are of raised brick. Two rear walls enclose the garden: one abuts the gable end of the original house and extends north, while the other runs north-south and terminates at its south end with a rusticated pier and urn. A coped base surrounding the front basement is finished with decorative cast-iron railings.