Carberry House, Durie Street, Leven

Carberry House, Durie Street, Leven

Carberry House is a mid to later 19th century Tudor-style building, substantially extended between 1891 and 1895 with the addition of a billiard room (later used as a marriage room). The structure was converted to municipal chambers and presented to the town of Leven in 1929 by Sir Robert Balfour, Baronet, as a memorial to his brother, Ex-Provost John Balfour. A brass plaque in the porch commemorates this gift, dated 1st July, 1929.

The main house is a 2-storey and attic building of rectangular plan with three bays, arranged as a gabled Tudor house with hall and inglenook fireplace. It is constructed with harled walls and ashlar dressings, with base and eaves courses. Windows feature hoodmoulds and pointed-arch forms, with architraved surrounds and stone mullions.

The principal south-east elevation is symmetrical, with a hoodmoulded window to the centre bay at ground floor and another at first floor level. Flanking gabled bays project slightly forward, each containing a canted tripartite window with decorative blocking course at ground level, a first-floor window, and a hoodmoulded pointed-arch window in the gablehead. The left gablehead features a pendant finial whilst the right displays a block finial.

The south-west entrance elevation features a flat-roofed porch with two windows projecting from the centre and left bays at ground floor. A moulded doorway with panelled timber door sits on the return to the right, with a further window in the adjacent bay; all openings are hoodmoulded. At first floor, a slightly advanced gabled bay to the left contains a window, whilst a further window to the right is set in a raised surround with moulded brackets and tri-lobe detail to the tympanum of a pediment breaking the eaves above. A hoodmoulded pointed-arch window in the left gablehead features a pendant finial.

The north-east elevation shows a slightly advanced gabled bay to the left of centre with a tripartite window at ground floor and a single window above with hoodmould and mask label-stops; a blind opening occupies the gablehead. To the right of centre, a link structure (connecting to the hall) projects at ground level, with two windows serving the first floor above.

The north-west rear elevation is asymmetrical, displaying various architectural elements including a gabled bay to the left with single-storey offices at ground level.

Windows throughout are timber sash and case with 4- and 12-pane glazing patterns. Gablehead windows are decoratively astragalled, and a margined stair window lights the north-west elevation. The roof is covered with grey slates; chimneys are harled with coped ashlar and feature moulded skewputts.

Interior features include decorative plasterwork cornicing, a timber-balustered dog-leg staircase with ball-and-spike finialled newels, and an attic stair with decorative cast-iron balusters and timber handrail. Segmental-headed arches are evident throughout.

The marriage room addition (originally a billiard room) is a single-storey rectangular structure with harled walls, base course, moulded string courses and deep blocking course. The bracketed cills and stone mullions are consistent with the main house detailing.

The north-east elevation of the marriage room features a lower rounded bay with three windows and decorative blocking course projecting from the centre, surmounted by a ball-finialled gablehead with a blind opening behind the blocking course above.

The south-east elevation displays an oriel-style bipartite window to the right of centre, with a blank bay to the left and the connecting link to the outer left.

The north-west elevation contains a lower bay (inglenook) with a dominant shouldered stack projecting from the centre to the left, a recessed doorway in the left bay and a window to the right.

The marriage room is glazed with plate glass in timber sash and case windows. The roof is grey slate with a coped, harled chimney stack, ashlar-coped skews and decorative cast-iron downpipes with ornamental rainwater hoppers.

The interior of the marriage room features a link with panelled timber walls and mosaic tiled floor. The hall proper has a panelled dado and plain cornicing. A broad depressed arch with moulded keystone leads to a raised dais at the south-west end; adjacent to this is a round-headed arch with a carved timber screen and small-pane coloured leaded glass featuring sunburst-astragalled round-headed top-lights. The north-west inglenook contains round-headed niches flanking a fireplace with a cast-iron grate and decoratively-tiled slips. The surround is heavily moulded with a carved frieze and brackets supporting a deep cornice crowned by a temple-style overmantel cabinet.

The property is set within a walled garden to the north-east, bounded by flat-coped brick walls. Decorative cast-iron lamp brackets are mounted on modern brick piers.