Greystane House, Kingsway West, Dundee

Greystane House, Kingsway West, Dundee

Greystane House is a 2-storey country house with a raised basement and attic storey, designed in the Baronial style and dated 1870 by the architect Campbell Douglas. The building has an irregular plan and is constructed of snecked and bull-faced pink rubble with polished stone dressings and a grey slate roof.

The external walls display considerable architectural detail. The basement course is visible across the elevations. Windows are mostly plate-glass, either single or in pairs, with transom and mullion divisions. They feature chamfered reveaks and relieving arches. Some windows have pedimented dormerheads with finials and sculptural decoration. There are also some glazed shot-hole type openings throughout. Various inscribed panels are set into the walls. The rainwater goods—both round and rectangular—include dated and initialled hoppers. The roofline is characterised by crowstepped gables, moulded ridge stacks, and decorative ridge tiles.

The eastern elevation contains a door to a left re-entrant, approached by forestairs with a moulded architrave in a slightly advanced doorpiece. A window and Renaissance-style aedicule sit above this entrance, with a dormerheaded window lighting the attic above. A bay to the left features a door to the basement under a forestair on the right, with a segmental-arched window to the principal floor and bipartite windows above. A distinctive rounded stair tower to the far left has various small openings and windows, topped by a stone-slated conical roof. A single-storey service court wall extends to the outer left, featuring a moulded segmental-arched carriage entrance, moulded string course, and coped crenellated parapet. An advanced bay to the right of the main door has windows to the left return, corbelled to the first floor, with a segmental-arched window at ground level. The bay has a rounded angle to the right, corbelled to square at attic level with a shot-hole and swept-down roof. A recessed bay to the far right is largely blank except for a parapet walk and attic floor with an elaborate pierced Maybole-type dormerhead.

The southern elevation shows the service court with modern additions that mask the basement floor. At the centre, a bay contains a window with security grille to the principal floor and a tripartite stair window above with a balustrade at wallhead. A rounded stair tower stands to the right with a lower lean-to to the left return. An advanced gable to the left has a window with security grille to the right and a small corbelled lean-to to the first floor.

The western elevation features an advanced gable to the left with an arrow slit ventilator at basement level, a bipartite window to the principal floor, and a corbelled first floor with smaller bipartite windows flanked by conically roofed bartizans. A recessed bay to the right has three windows to the principal floor, with dormerheaded windows to the first floor, and another conically roofed bartizan to the right. A modern conservatory masks the basement of this elevation.

The northern elevation has an off-centre door with a moulded doorcase in the centre bay, bipartite windows to the first and second floors, and a wallhead stack. A large oriel window to the principal floor right contains a wrought-iron grilled window set within corbelling below. An inscribed panel stands to the right, with a pedimented dormerhead to the left. A slightly advanced bay to the far left, masked at basement by a modern addition, has two windows to the principal floor and a bipartite window to the first floor, with a corbelled parapet walk and attic window to the gable.

Interior

The inner hall is partly panelled and contains an elaborate 3-flight scale and platt staircase with turned balusters and balustrade at the landing. Carved newel posts support the staircase, and the hall has a timber ceiling and a large expanse of lincrusta-clad walls. A prominent 17th-century-style stone chimneypiece is inscribed 'VAH INCALVI VIDI IGNEM' (a reference to Isaiah, chapter 45, verse 16: 'Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire'). A principal floor room is reputed to be a former chapel, fitted with panelled dado, stencilled doors and shutters, richly ornamented frieze and cornice, and a depressed-arched recess with Byzantine detailing and animal-pattern carved capitals. Moulded cornices and ceiling roses appear elsewhere throughout the house, although most chimneypieces have been removed.

Garden and Boundary Features

A walled garden to the north-west is formed of rubble masonry walls with brick lining on three sides. A modern knot garden adjoins the house to the west. Rubble walls with round coping enclose the property to the north and east. Cast-iron railings at the north-east angle reveal a glacial boulder known as the 'greystane' or 'paddock stone'.