Ferncroft, 6 Panmure Terrace, Barnhill, Dundee

Ferncroft, 6 Panmure Terrace, Barnhill, Dundee

Designed by Patrick Thoms and William Wilkie and completed in 1913, with a garage block added in 1916, Ferncroft is a 2-storey house of irregular plan built in the later Arts and Crafts style. The building is harled brick with polished stone dressings, a partial base course, and a red tile roof. Windows are predominantly 6-pane casements with chamfered reveals. Hoppers feature Tudor rose motifs. The house is characterised by deep eaves, shouldered gables with narrow attic lights and Lorimerian apex detail, and tall stone-coped stacks with uniform clay cans. A piended roof crowns the main structure. A small modern flat-roofed addition has been incorporated at the left of the north elevation.

The north (entrance) elevation features a 3-bay main block to the right, with a corner loggia formed by a round-headed arch at the north-west corner. A 2-leaf door and bipartite window occupy the left, with a tripartite window at first floor. The single-storey modern projection (converted to kitchen and dining room by Nicoll Russell Studio, Broughty Ferry, in 1987) stands to the left, while three keystoned and glazed arches to the west echo the loggia seen on the south elevation, with a coped wallhead and blank north elevation beyond. At first floor, a slightly advanced gable on the left incorporates an angle stack and bipartite stair window. A flat-roofed bay at the centre features a bipartite window and modern rooflight.

The south elevation displays four symmetrical bays above a base course. The first and third bays are gabled and advanced, linked by an arcaded loggia (later glazed) with a corbelled parapet. A tripartite window is set back at first floor. The left gabled bay contains a 4-light window at ground floor and a tripartite window at first floor, with a glazed door opening onto a balcony. The right gabled bay is detailed similarly but features a shallow 5-light window at ground floor and a 3-light window at first floor. A set-back bay at the outer right holds a tripartite window at ground floor and a bipartite window at first floor. A large hopper on this elevation is dated 1913.

The east elevation is asymmetrical, featuring an advanced entrance porch with a piended roof swept into the main pitch at centre-right, clasping a full-height gabled stair bay at the centre with a single window on the return and a stair window at first floor. A set-back bay on the left displays a bipartite window at ground floor and two windows at first floor. A tripartite window and further door appear at the right, with a piended dormer.

The west elevation is also asymmetrical, with an arch at the left. A chimney-breast at the centre, part corbelled at first floor, features a set-back window at ground floor and a shouldered wallhead stack. A set-back bay on the right holds a bipartite window at ground floor and a single window at first floor.

The detached garage is split-level with a piended roof, positioned at the far left. A single-storey and attic service block at the centre has a bipartite window at the left, a piended roof, and two piended dormers on the right return. Pyramidal-capped gatepiers stand at the far right, with wrought-iron gates that appear to be original.

A polygonal-plan timber summerhouse in the garden incorporates some Art Nouveau stained glass.

Internally, the hall features oak panelling, a brick chimneypiece with a carved timber mantle, and small exposed ceiling beams with a simple grape and foliate plaster cornice. A 2-tiered screen of turned balusters and round-arch arcade forms part of the panelled well stair, which has a coomb ceiling with acorn-pattern plaster decoration. The drawing room contains a classically detailed chimneypiece and delicate plasterwork ceiling, with original door and window furniture. The parlour has a carved oak chimneypiece. Original light fittings remain in the hall, parlour, and some bedrooms.

The house was built for James Fearns and was divided into separate units in the 1940s.