Red Court, 17 Fairfield Road, Dundee

Red Court, 17 Fairfield Road, Dundee

Red Court is a 2-storey villa with high attic, built in 1886 and designed by Hippolyte J Blanc, completed by George MacLaren. A billiard room wing was added by William Gauldie and Robert Hardie in 1920. The building is constructed of snecked and bull-faced rubble Dumfries sandstone with polished dressings and some harl, beneath a green slate roof. It is an irregular-plan, large French Renaissance-style villa featuring windows mainly with ashlar transom and mullion, some canted with chamfered reveals, moulded at the south and west elevations. The sash and case frames have plate glass at the bottom and multi-pane at the top. Cill courses appear at the south elevation, with a wallhead course throughout. Elongated, shouldered wallhead stacks with moulded copes are fitted with cast-iron rainwater goods featuring decorative brackets and hoppers. The roof is pyramidal, apsidal and piended with steep pitch and multi-form construction, incorporating lead flashings, lucarnes, brattishing and a weathervane at the highest point.

The south elevation has a centrally placed door with fanlight and moulded, pilastered and pedimented doorpiece with Ionic capitals, flanked by bipartite windows. A single window appears above at the left, and a bipartite window to the right bears a mannered segmental pediment with a name and date stone reading 'Red Court 1886'. A 2-storey, 6-light canted window projects at a bay on the far right, breaking through the wallhead. At the far left, a 2-storey, 8-light canted angle window is positioned above a set-back tripartite canted window with pedimented lintels at attic level. A tripartite Dutch-gabled dormerhead adjoins to the right.

The west elevation features a recessed bay at the right with a bipartite window at the centre and a single window at the left. A 4-light canted window with parapet sits at the right, with three windows at first floor level. A further bowed window is positioned at the right in a re-entrant with a massive wallhead stack at the centre. An advanced gable at the far right contains a canted angle window matching that on the south elevation, with a massive corbelled wallhead stack at the left. A single-storey and attic billiard room wing is advanced at the far left, with a door at a right re-entrant featuring a storm porch, a tripartite canted window with parapet, and a flat roof dormer set within a pyramidal roof with swept eaves clasping the main house at the right.

The east elevation has an advanced piended-roof bay at the centre with two windows at ground floor and bipartite windows at first floor. A recessed bay at the left contains windows at ground and first floor on the right, with a corbelled wallhead stack bearing pedimented detail. A further recessed bay at the right holds a tripartite window with relieving arch, a window and service hatch to the right, two windows at first floor, and another wallhead stack.

The north elevation displays two projecting piended-roof wings, with single and 2-storey sections linking. A harled billiard room wing at the right has three windows, and a single storey projection appears at the left.

The interior is in original condition throughout, including all chimneypieces and most kitchen and bathroom ceramics. Notable features include a stirrup pump type WS in the outer hall, panelled outer and inner halls, an imperial staircase with turned balusters and carved newel posts, and a tripartite Pre-Raphaelite stained glass stair window. The drawing room displays a fruit and foliate frieze in various colours, while the dining room features an Art Nouveau frieze. A suite comprising a gun room, cloakroom and panelled billiard room with original sanctuary lamp-type light fittings is present. A boarded napery and ironing room occupy the first floor. The day and night nurseries feature hand-painted Kate Greenaway-type designs on chimneypiece tiles. The attic suite includes a boarded dark room, bathroom and original panelled billiard room. A speaking tube system is installed throughout.

An oriental design blue and white ceramic sundial on a hexagonal ashlar plinth stands in the garden. A cast-iron lamp standard with foliate decoration, fluted shaft and Corinthian capital is also present.

The entrance features two mannered painted gatepiers at the south, square and chamfered to octagonal with moulded caps, with further plain gatepiers to a pedestrian gate. Two chamfered ashlar gatepiers with pyramidal caps mark the north (coach house) entrance. Rubble boundary walls with rounded coping extend along the north, south and east sides, while a brick boundary wall appears at the west and at the kitchen garden.