Northwood, 118 Strathern Road, Broughty Ferry, Dundee

Northwood, 118 Strathern Road, Broughty Ferry, Dundee

A large 2-storey villa with tower, designed by George Shaw Aitken in 1880, with a major extension to the west by Robert Gibson in 1911. The building has an irregular plan and is constructed in snecked tooled rubble with a bull-faced base course and pale ashlar dressings, with a slate roof. Windows are transom and mullion type with chamfered margins and plate glass sash and case frames; open-work parapets feature at canted and rectangular windows and at the south portico. A continuous lintel course runs at first floor on the south and east elevations. The eaves are bracketed with plain bargeboards; exposed collars and posts rise to finialled gables. Cast-iron rainwater goods with decorative brackets and hoppers and moulded stacks complete the external detailing.

The east elevation has a single-storey, 3-bay wing to the right. An entrance porch is advanced at the centre, with a 2-leaf panelled door in a moulded doorcase featuring a sculpted lintel, moulded plinth, saw-tooth angle brackets, and round-arched corbelling to an open-bottom pediment with cartouche and sculpted decoration and segmental acroterion. A recessed linking section to the left contains a bipartite window, with a flat-roofed blank bay recessed to the right featuring a patera panel. The main house stands to the left. A large T-plan conservatory occupies the centre, with a 5-light canted window at an advanced single-storey bay at the far left, a 5-light rectangular window at the far right, and 3 windows at first floor; a bipartite window is at the right gable with a mannered block lintel.

The south elevation shows the original house at the right, with a tripartite window at the centre and a first-floor balcony with bipartite window. An advanced gable at the far right contains a 2-storey, 5-light canted window with paired saw-tooth angle brackets supporting an oversailing gable with cartouche. A 5-light rectangular projecting window stands at the far right, with bipartite flanked by single windows at first floor. The extension at the left is advanced from the original elevation and features a semi-circular Doric columned entrance portico with balustrade at a far-right re-entrant angle. Above this sits a tripartite canted window set diagonally with saw-tooth brackets supporting an oversailing gable. A 6-light rectangular projecting window stands at the left, with bipartite flanked by single windows at first floor. A 4-light canted window appears at the far right with bipartite at first floor. A corbelled round angled turret at the left angle contains a tripartite first-floor window, panel friezes, and an ogival finialled roof.

The west elevation has the extension to the right, featuring an armorial shield flanked by oculi, a forestair to the left, and a door with 2 windows at first floor. Additional windows appear at ground and first floor on the left return gable. The original building is recessed to the left, with a single-storey projection at the far left. Four windows occupy the ground floor right; depressed arch windows at first floor with paired round-headed, multi-pane windows inserted stand above a balcony, beneath a mansard roof-light with finialled 4-sided cupola.

The north elevation features various single-storey projections. A slightly advanced first-floor tripartite stair window sits off-centre with paired saw-tooth brackets supporting an oversailing gable. A bipartite window to the right has a piended dormer above; a bipartite to the left is topped by a segmental pediment. A 2-stage tower rises above with 2 windows at the first stage and a window with balcony at the second, with further windows on the south, east, and west elevations. A moulded cornice and balustraded parapet with stone-finialled corner dies crown the tower. A blank bay stands at first floor far right, and a projecting gable at far right features an oculus.

The interior is of exceptional quality throughout, retaining 17th and 18th century-style detailing virtually unaltered, including all ceiling cornices and plasterwork, chimneypieces, and most bathroom ceramics and fixtures. Notable features include: Doric marble columns in antis at the porch with a large fanlight and door; a compartmentalised ceiling with Tudor rose and monogram motifs in the outer hall, which has a tripartite bowed door and mannered astragals; a large inner hall with oak wainscot and a massive Jacobean-style marble chimneypiece with cast-iron grate; a scale and platt staircase with open-work balusters and a large tripartite stained glass window; festoon plasterwork and an ornate chimneypiece in the dining room; hardwood panelling, Corinthian columns, pilasters, and plasterwork in the billiard room; a large Eagle range marked 'G H Nicoll and Co, Dundee'; an early cast-iron radiator at the landing; a 'Twyford EDINBURGH combined housemaid's sink and slop hopper'; a decorative cast-iron spiral staircase to the tower observation room; and flower pattern leaded and stained windows in the old billiard room, which has a mezzanine added.

A large T-plan conservatory adjoins the east elevation.

Enclosing the property are 4 mannered coped ashlar gatepiers, though 1 has been removed to the south of a new sheltered housing block (1989). A rubble wall stands to the west and along Strathern Road, modified by the new building. A decorative cast-iron lamp standard stands in the drive. A terrace wall of snecked rubble with semi-circular balustrade and moulded coping lies to the south of the house, with steps at east and west ends.