Bendameer House, Aberdour Road, Burntisland

Bendameer House, Aberdour Road, Burntisland

Probably designed by Peddie & Kinnear in 1874, this is a substantial two-storey house built in the Italianate style. The building is constructed in dressed ashlar with polished channelled quoins, and features a base course, moulded first floor cill course, and eaves cornice throughout. Doors and windows are architraved with keystoned segmental-headed and tabbed openings, bracketed window cills, stop-chamfered arrises, and columnar stone mullions.

The north (entrance) elevation is dominated by a tall projecting entrance bay set off-centre to the left. This contains a deep-set two-leaf timber door with a semicircular plate glass fanlight set within a keystoned segmental-headed doorcase flanked by pilasters. Above the door sits an ashlar balconette on scrolled consoles, with a window featuring rose carving to its lintel. Narrow windows occupy the returns on the right and left at ground level. A bipartite round-headed under-stair window sits in the bay to the right, below a larger similar window with keystones and a consoled cill. A further projecting bay to the outer right contains a window with rose carving at its centre and a small blind tablet above also decorated with rose motifs. Single windows in bays to the left of centre appear at both floors, with a further projecting bay beyond featuring corniced windows at ground level and a window above with a consoled cill and gabled dormerhead breaking the eaves line, complete with rose carving in the gablehead.

The south elevation features a full-height corniced canted window to the right of centre. A recessed lower wing extends to the outer right, with a decorative early twentieth-century conservatory positioned in the re-entrant angle across the ground floor (see below), a first floor window to the left, and a dominant chimney-breast at the centre. A further single-storey pavilion with two windows sits beyond on rising ground. A canted window with corniced blocking course forms a bay to the left of centre at ground level; the first floor has a window near the centre left and another to the left. A small blind tablet crowned with rose carving occupies the penultimate bay to the left, with a further window beyond.

The west elevation is arranged in two bays. A full-height canted window projects to the right, while to the left sits a projecting tripartite window with narrow windows on the returns, positioned below a stone balcony with coped stone balustrade. Above this is a tripartite window with rose carving to the centre light.

The east elevation features a projecting single-storey element to the centre and right. A bipartite window sits to the left below a first floor window topped by a gabled dormerhead breaking the eaves, with rose carving in the gablehead.

Throughout the building, windows are fitted with plate glass glazing in timber sash and case frames. The roof is covered in grey slates, with cavetto-coped grouped ashlar stacks fitted with cans and plain barge boarding and moulded brackets supporting the wide overhanging eaves. Cast-iron downpipes with decorative rainwater hoppers and fixings complete the external detailing.

Interior

The interior begins with a vestibule containing niches flanking the doorway. The inner hallway features a parquet floor and a timber-panelled scale-and-platt staircase with a barley-twist timber stair rail and square newel-posts dressed with elaborate urn and pendant finials. The stairwell contains an embossed or low-relief plaster frieze depicting a Bacchanalian feast with cherubs. The first floor landing is panelled throughout.

The drawing room is fitted with a panelled segmental-arched white marble chimneypiece bearing the initials RW on the keystone, while the dining room contains a similar chimneypiece executed in black marble. Decorative plasterwork cornices adorn the principal rooms. The house retains comprehensive offices, traditional storage, boarded dadoes, panelled window shutters, and bar sash lifts. Round-arched doorways with panelled soffits occur at first floor level, and timber and marble fireplaces feature throughout.

Conservatory

The conservatory, which dates to the early twentieth century, is positioned in the re-entrant angle on the south elevation. It has a dressed ashlar base and features a projecting finialled gable at its centre. The entrance is flanked by narrow cast-iron columns, with arcaded windows below set with etched glass panels and square columns positioned at the corners with narrow columns between. The pitched roof is fitted with decorative cast-iron ridges.

Terrace Walls, Boundary Walls and Gatepiers

Bowed brick terrace walls on three levels form the main terrace. The boundary wall to the road is constructed of old rubble with a rounded rubble cope and partial hoop wire fence. A high coped rubble boundary wall extends along the south side. Pyramid-coped square ashlar gatepiers mark the principal entrances.