Motor House, Balmyle, Balmyle Road, Dundee

Motor House, Balmyle, Balmyle Road, Dundee

This is a late 19th-century villa, much extended and remodelled by Alexander Johnston and David N Baxter, dated 1906. It is a 2-storey building of irregular plan.

The exterior is constructed of tooled, snecked rubble sandstone with ashlar dressings and a green slate roof. Features include a base course, deep modelled eaves, corniced stacks with uniform moulded terracotta cans, and a platform roof with various finialled piended gables. Windows are single, bi- and tripartite with plain reveals; rectangular windows have corniced, mannered parapets with domed angle dies. Sash and case window frames contain plate glass at the north elevation and other service windows, with plate glass and multi-pane glazing elsewhere.

The east elevation displays a door with fanlight, keystoned and moulded doorcase, and a pediment with monogram at the left return of an advanced off-centre porch. A balustraded wall with steps sits at the left. A tripartite window appears at the right with cornice and moulded parapet above rectangular windows. A bipartite gabled dormerhead is recessed at first-floor level. An advanced gable at the right contains a tripartite window at first floor, with a tripartite tabled dormerhead at the far right and a window at first-floor outer right. An advanced gable at the left of the porch has tripartite windows at ground and first-floor levels. A polygonal conically-roofed angle turret, recessed at the left, contains four windows and is corbelled to circular form at first-floor level, with a cill course extending to the gable at the right and a weathervane dated 1906.

The south elevation features a 3-bay main block at the right. A tripartite rectangular window at the centre has a door at the middle with small rectangular panes and X-pane astragals in the windows and a curvilinear pattern in the door. Cornice and parapet run above. A bipartite gabled dormerhead appears at first-floor level. An angle turret at the right matches that described above. A 2-storey, 4-light rectangular window sits at the left with cornice and parapet. A single-storey block at the far left contains a rectangular window at the centre flanked by small round-headed windows.

The west elevation is irregular with three bays. A recessed bay at the centre has a bipartite window at the right. A single-storey flat-roofed block advances at the left, with a tripartite canted window at first floor and a gabled dormerhead. An advanced bay at the left has a bipartite window at ground-floor right and a segmental angle turret with conical roof corbelled at first-floor right. A single-storey advanced bay at the right contains three round-headed windows at ground floor; the left return has a door with fanlight and 4-light bowed windows, and a bipartite window. A single window appears at first floor of the main block with a dormer. Wrought iron railings line the area steps.

The north elevation contains a door and various single and bipartite windows at ground and first-floor levels.

The interior retains original features throughout, including an 18th-century-style chimneypiece, plaster ceiling and doorpieces in the drawing room. The dining room has a panelled dado, chimney, doorpiece and compartmentalised ceiling. Decorative plaster cornices and other chimneypieces appear throughout. Part of the original and 1906 staircase remains, with turned balusters and rooflight. The hall contains stained glass windows, a door with bevelled glazing and fanlight, and other doors with mannered architraves. Some first-floor rooms have coomb ceilings. Service rooms are boarded. Original door furniture is in place.

The original motor house stands at the east with lower wings adjoining at east and west. It is constructed of snecked rubble with green slate roof, coped skews with kneelers, a round-headed multi-pane window at the south, and double doors at the north. A later 3-car width garage and shed to the north features weatherboarding and glass with piended green slate roof, a ventilator at a finialled ridge, and an inspection pit inside.

The entrance is marked by three round-section, pyramidal-capped ashlar gatepiers. Three hemispherically-capped, chamfered ashlar gatepiers sit opposite the motor house and garage. A round-coped rubble boundary wall extends along the south, east and west sides.