Conservatory, Aystree, 26 Victoria Road, Broughty Ferry, Dundee

Aystree, 26 Victoria Road, Broughty Ferry, Dundee

A large Arts and Crafts style villa designed by Charles Ower and Charles G Soutar, dated 1903. The building is two storeys and attic, basically rectangular in plan, constructed in bull-faced rubble masonry with ashlar dressings. Some gables are half-timbered and harred. The roofs are red tile piended roofs. Cill courses run at ground and first floor level on the south and west elevations. Windows at ground and first floor are transomed and mullioned, mostly timber sash and case with small paned upper lights and moulded margins; those at attic level are casements. Cast-iron rainwater goods with decorative hoppers run around the building. The eaves are bracketed with plain bargeboards. Chimney stacks are coped with mostly original terracotta cans.

The west elevation is four bays. A single-storey entrance porch projects from the centre at a re-entrant angle, featuring a moulded doorcase with slender spiralled doric column doorpiece and scrolled strapwork pediment, quasi-buckle quoins, dentilled cornice, and curvilinear open-work strapwork parapet. A tripartite window occupies a recessed bay at right, with three windows at first floor and a tripartite dormer above. An advanced gable at far right has chamfered angles and two inglenook windows at ground floor; similar windows at first floor feature segmental lintels. A corniced stack with datestone rises from the battered wallhead through the jettied half-timbered gablehead, with two windows flanking. Paired advanced bays at far left each consist of a four-light window at ground floor and a canted oriel at first floor, with a jettied half-timbered gable containing a bipartite window at attic level.

The south elevation is three bays and asymmetrical. A recessed bay at the centre has tripartite French doors at ground and first floor with a dormer above. An open canted timber verandah with multi-paned upper lights sits at ground level, with a scalloped timber balcony featuring Art-Nouveau wrought-iron work above. A gable at left contains a two-storey, five-light rectangular projecting window with metal casements at ground level and swags and strapwork frieze at first floor, corbelled and jettied half-timbered gable with tripartite window above. An advanced gable at right features canted windows at ground and first floor with a shaped gable, moulded coping, and bipartite window.

The east elevation has a wide slightly recessed bay at left with a door masked by the conservatory and a window at ground and first floor. A wide advanced bay at right contains various windows at ground and first floor, with a four-light tile-hung oriel at first floor within a re-entrant with ogival capped roof.

The north elevation is three bays. A bay at left has a single window at ground level. A gable at right features exposed collar and posts at apex, with windows at ground and attic. A single-storey centre bay contains a door and boarded fuel opening beneath a piended roof with a large lantern; a stair window connects to the main house.

Interior

The interior is of exceptional quality in Arts and Crafts style with Art-Nouveau details. The porch is rib-vaulted. The oak-panelled hall features a canopied chimneypiece, built-in dresser, beamed ceiling, and a screen to the stairs. The original frieze is stencilled jute with Liberty pattern. A panelled cloakroom adjoins. The drawing room contains a large inglenook with a mixed-style chimneypiece and stained glass windows flanking. The library features built-in shelves and a tree pattern frieze by Liberty, with a chimneypiece of coloured tesserae and flanking bow-fronted glazed cupboards. The dining room has a dado and beamed ceiling with a copper canopied and timber chimneypiece inscribed 'well befall hearth and hall'. Built-in sideboards in similar style are inscribed 'not meat but cheerfulness maketh the feast'. A still room contains ceramic cold slabs and fitted napery. The oak staircase and landing panelling feature open-work balusters. Some original light fixtures, bathroom ceramics, door furniture, and most chimneypieces survive.

A conservatory with a canted centre bay is attached at the east side.

The boundary comprises a rubble wall at west (Victoria Road) and four circular-section hemispherically-capped bull-faced masonry gatepiers with quadrants at the south (Albert Street).