St Leonard's Hill House, Queensferry Road, Dunfermline

St Leonard's Hill House, Queensferry Road, Dunfermline

A detached villa thought to have been built in 1871, St Leonard's Hill House is a two-storey Italianate design with later alterations. The building comprises a four-bay main block to the south and a slightly narrower wing set back to the north. The north wing was extended as student accommodation by John Fraser in 1939-40, with its roof converted to an attic. The building was converted to flats in 1998-99.

The villa is built of finely coursed stugged sandstone with polished ashlar dressings. It features a prominent Corinthian entrance portico to the principal south elevation, with flanking two-storey canted windows. Detailing includes a base course, band course above the ground floor, and an eaves band incorporating raised panels (similar band courses sit below the canted windows to the principal and east elevations). A bracketed eaves cornice and balustraded parapet incorporating fielded panels crown the roof of the main block only. A first-floor cill course runs across the principal and east elevations of the main block. Rusticated quoins emphasize the arrises. Architraved openings feature throughout; those to the canted windows are elaborately moulded. Windows to the principal and east elevations of the main block have keystones; those to the west elevation are corniced with deep cills to the ground floor and bracketed cills to the first floor. Deep cills mark the ground floor windows of the north wing, while first-floor windows feature corniced treatments with bracketed cills.

The principal south elevation centres on a Corinthian entrance portico to a slightly recessed pair of bays. Two pairs of Corinthian columns on octagonal pedestals support a balustraded entablature, with matching pairs of Corinthian pilasters set back behind. The round-arched entrance is flanked by Doric pilasters and contains a six-panel timber door and fanlight. Narrow round-arched flanking windows with aprons and flanking Doric pilasters flank the entrance. Above sit a pair of windows with moulded architraves. The outer bays are set forward, each containing a two-storey canted window projection at its centre. The mullioned tripartites to each floor have elaborately moulded architraves; those at ground level are flanked by attached columns with foliate capitals.

The east elevation features a single bay set back to the left of the main block with a window to each floor. A projecting bay to the right contains a two-storey canted window projection. A three-bay rear wing extends to the outer right with a window to each bay at each floor. The centre window of the ground floor is a mullioned tripartite with a segmental pediment to the central light (the right light was converted to an entrance to a 1990s glazed porch); the right ground-floor window is pedimented. A small plain additional window appears to the left of the first floor, and an inserted double boxed dormer stands to the right of the attic.

The west elevation comprises a three-bay main block with a window to each bay at each floor; the flanking outer ones are mullioned bipartites. A three-bay rear wing extends to the outer left, with windows to each bay at each floor. Those to the two rightmost bays are mullioned bipartites; the centre ground-floor window has a block pediment. The right-hand window was converted to an entrance to a 1990s glazed porch. The outer left bay is rendered. Inserted double and single boxed dormers sit in the attic.

The north elevation adjoins a three-storey extension of 1939-40 (not included in this listing) which forms an extensive I-plan stretching east and west. This extension is built of coursed sandstone, partially rendered.

The roof is of grey slate, piended to the main block. Two wallhead stacks stand to the west (one to the main block), two to the rear of the main block adjoining the north wing, and two ridge stacks (one to the main block, one to the north wing); all are corniced with friezes and mostly have round cans. The windows throughout are two-pane timber sash and case.

The interior retains the main elements of the ground-floor layout to the main block. An inner vestibule to the main entrance has a tiled floor and a tripartite round-arched screen. A double half-turn staircase with landings (the cast-iron balustrade partially intact) rises at the centre of the entrance hall. A fine plaster ceiling incorporating Roman motifs adorns the main ground-floor room to the west.

The entrance gateway comprises a pair of chamfered square-plan sandstone ashlar gatepiers with a base course and frieze. A recessed panel faces each side of the main body and frieze. A moulded cornice sits at the base of a stepped two-tier swept octagonal pyramid coping. An identical slightly lower-height pier serves the pedestrian entrance to the south, with one at each end of flanking sections of decorative cast-iron railings swept in plan (alternately convex to the south and concave to the north). A decorative cast-iron gate stands at the pedestrian entrance (those to the main gateway are missing).