Woodend, 20 Millig Street, Helensburgh

Woodend, 20 Millig Street, Helensburgh

Woodend is a 2-storey asymmetrical L-plan villa constructed in 1872 with cream sandstone ashlar to its principal elevations and rubble to service quarters. The building features classical architectural details including base and corbel courses, corbelled midway at first floor level that overstep the windows, paired bracketed eaves, and chamfered and cavetto moulded reveals. Windows feature ashlar mullions to canted and tripartite designs, with bracketed cills to first floor windows. The roof is piended grey slate with ashlar corniced chimney stacks.

A conservatory was added by William Leiper in 1901, and further additions to the rear and interior were carried out by A N Paterson in 1910.

The south elevation, which faces Millig Street, contains the main entrance accessed through a single-storey porch set in the re-entrant angle to the outer right. The porch has sturdy piers and an entablature with rosette detail to the frieze and a blocking course. The architraved doorpiece contains two-leaf panelled doors with a deep-set half-glazed vestibule door flanked by stained glass panels, with further panels above. An advanced bay to the left features a slightly advanced corniced tripartite window at ground level with lead-pane and stained glass glazing to the upper sashes, and two windows above at first floor. To the outer left is another advanced bay with a corniced canted window at ground level with geometric lead-pane glazing to the upper sashes, flanked by two widely spaced windows above at first floor with a circular carved panel between letter R and the date 1872 positioned between them.

The west elevation contains a window to the centre and right at ground level. An advanced bay window to the outer left (now a doorway to 33 Queen Street) is bipartite to the west with narrow windows on the returns and lead-pane glazing to upper sashes. Three asymmetrically disposed windows appear at first floor level.

The north or rear elevation features a projecting stair-hall window off-centre right at ground level with a 4-light Elizabethan window to the north incorporating geometric lead-pane glazing and stained glass figurative panels to the centre, flanked by a 2-light window on the return to the right. Three closely spaced windows appear above at first floor. A lower 2-storey service wing projects to the left with an asymmetrical arrangement of windows to the north, east and west elevations. The north face of the service wing contains a door off-centre right. The west face features a canted oriel to the centre with a jettied gable flanked by windows. The east face displays an engaged octagonal tower at first floor level to the south-east angle, topped by a slate-hung domed roof with finial.

The east elevation includes a bipartite window to the outer right at first floor level. A conservatory is linked to the villa by an unsympathetic modern single-storey flat-roofed block.

Most windows are plate glass sash and case with lead-pane glazing where noted above. Multi-pane glazing appears in casement and sash and case windows to the rear addition. Original rainwater goods survive in part.

The interior contains marble flooring to the vestibule and part of the hall. Corniced ceilings and architraved and corniced doors are features throughout. A 17th century Renaissance style timber screen fronts the timber balustered staircase, which is lit by a domed rooflight containing stained glass. Original chimneypieces survive in good condition. The stair-hall contains a finely carved ashlar chimneypiece and overmantle dating to 1910 with an Art Nouveau brass surround to the fireplace featuring reclining entwined figures, and an overmantle with niche to the centre and dentilled cornice. Art Nouveau stained glass features in windows to the vestibule and stair rooflight.

The conservatory, added by William Leiper in 1901, is of octagonal plan with an ashlar plinth and timber framework. Nine-pane fixed plate glass panes are positioned above a course of frosted glass. A two-leaf doorway opens to the south. Inside, an octagonal arcade of cast-iron columns features quatrefoil decoration to the spandrels; these formerly supported a lantern now gone. The floor is red brick.

Boundary walls are of red sandstone rubble with semi-circular coping. To Millig Street, cream ashlar square piers feature moulded panels with patera decoration and corniced caps surmounted by iron lanterns, with decorated iron gates set between them. Quadrant walls flank the entrance. A red brick garden wall to the north of the villa divides the north garden, featuring a curvilinear wallhead, cream sandstone stepped and moulded coping, and a fine Art Nouveau iron gate with foliate decoration. An iron lantern standard on a cream ashlar octagonal pedestal with carved panels stands in the garden.