Gilven House, 22 Iona Park, Leslie

Gilven House, built in 1934-5, is a two-storey gabled Arts and Crafts house with a single-storey extension, located at 22 Iona Park in Leslie. The building is constructed in white painted harl with contrasting stone surrounds and stone mullions, and features a polished ashlar doorcase with moulded, stepped cornice.

The main south elevation is symmetrical and dominated by a projecting five-bay timber posted entrance porch at the centre, which supports a full-width balcony. The entrance comprises a tripartite door with a two-leaf panelled outer door. Bipartite windows flank the entrance at first-floor level. Slightly projecting gables to the outer left and right feature canted quadripartite windows at ground level and tripartite windows with centre doors at first-floor level, each topped by a lined stone semicircle. A recessed single-storey wing to the outer right contains a partly glazed door in a re-entrant angle beneath a small flat-roofed projection, two windows to the right, and a further door in a stepped return. An advanced outer right bay with a canted quadripartite window sits beneath a piended roof, with a taller roof section behind topped by a small pagoda-style pyramidal capping.

The north elevation displays a projecting ogee-roofed turnpike stair to the left with small lights at three levels. Immediately to the right are bipartite windows at both ground and first-floor levels. The main body has two windows at ground level and three above, with a small window below the large stair window. A prominent wallhead stack rises to the outer right. A single-storey wing to the left contains a part-glazed door to the right of centre, a window to the right, and a small light to the outer right, with a further window at the outer left.

The east elevation is dominated by a large centre stack, stepped at its base, with a first-floor window above the extension. Windows are positioned at the outer left at both ground and first-floor levels, with two additional windows serving the extension.

The west elevation features a door at the centre within a seven-bay canted entrance with balcony. A first-floor door sits above, adjacent to a dominant stack to the right which breaks the eaves. The stack features an elongated S-scroll to the left and a higher eaves line to the right with a tiny crenellation. Narrow windows appear at the outer right at both floors, with a canted window to the left at both levels.

The windows predominantly feature eight- and twelve-pane glazing patterns in timber sash and case frames, with small-pane glazing in the top opening windows of the west entrance. Ornate astragals and coloured glass appear in the stair window and main door lights. Red clay tiles and coped ashlar stacks with cans finish the roof, whilst ashlar coped skews with moulded skewputts, overhanging eaves, and a decorative rainwater hopper complete the external detailing.

The interior contains a quarter-turn stair with winders and turned newel post finials. The stair window features thick moulded wood astragals with leaded panes and coloured glass, the latter material also appearing in the lights flanking the main door.

The gatepiers, boundary wall, and railings comprise ashlar coped random rubble boundary walls with inset cast-iron railings. The coped, rusticated gatepiers are topped with large ball finials.

The house was built for John Methven, a coalmaster, and is reputedly constructed using 'black-leg' labour during a miners' strike. The property is currently in use as a residential home run by the Christian Alliance. The design bears resemblance to earlier houses by T Duncan Rhind in East Lothian, and would not have been out of place thirty years earlier than its construction date.