Hepburn Hall, Hepburn Gardens, St Andrews

Hepburn Hall, designed by James Gillespie & Scott and dated 1913, is a 2-storey house with attic in an L-plan arrangement, comprising five bays. A 2-storey extension was converted to flats around 2000. The building is constructed from narrow blocks of rock-faced rubble with droved quoins, raised base and band courses, and an eaves cornice. Windows feature some bracketed cills with roll-moulded margins, some Gibbsian margins, keystones and voussoirs, with stone mullions throughout.

The south-east (garden) elevation is symmetrical, with a projecting balustraded bay to the centre at ground level containing a wide central tripartite window and single windows on the returns with banded angles. A timber door with a deep 6-pane fanlight and an adjacent window to the left both have elongated keystones. A keystoned window with a relieving arch is set in the bay to the left, and canted 3-light windows occupy the outer bays, that to the right giving onto steps leading to a central French door. The first floor has a keystoned wide central tripartite window in the centre bay, with windows in the flanking bays and canted windows in the outer bays below pitched roofs. Three small flat-roofed dormers are set centrally.

The north-west (entrance) elevation features a corniced and balustraded porch to the centre bay with a segmental-headed, keystoned, deeply moulded doorway and panelled timber door angled to the right, with a small similarly-detailed window on a bracketed cill angled to the left. A window immediately to the left at ground level is followed by three regularly disposed small windows above. A tiny ground-floor window sits below a keystoned stair window, with a band course forming a transom and a low flat-roofed dormer window above. A slightly projecting bay to the right of centre contains a bipartite window to the left and a single window to the right at ground level, with a further small single window to the left at first-floor level. The right return of the advanced wing to the outer left has a full-height projecting stack and blind panel below a projecting stone, flanked by bipartite windows at ground level. A further bipartite window below a paired semicircular pediment stands to the right at first-floor level, with a single window breaking the lowered eaves line into a triangular-pedimented dormerhead to the left. A single-storey flat-roofed stone porch addition dates to circa 2000. A 3-bay piend-roofed extension extends to the left, with three windows at ground level and further windows in the centre and right bays at first-floor level.

The south-west elevation has a bay to the right of centre at ground level with a mutuled cornice and keystoned semicircular pediment over the centre light of a tripartite window (the left light is blocked). Two windows occupy the centre and a bipartite window is set in the bay to the left. The first floor displays a moulded panel dated '1913' to the right, a single window to the centre and a wide central tripartite in the bay to the left. A metal fire escape ladder stands to the right of centre, with a small flat-roofed dormer window above.

The north-east elevation exhibits an asymmetrical arrangement of varied elements including a projecting single-storey semi-octagonal bay clasping the right angle of a projecting block to the left, and an extension to the right.

Windows are largely fitted with small-pane upper sashes over plate-glass lower sashes in timber sash-and-case frames, with coloured leaded glass to the stair, hall and porch windows. The roof is covered in grey slates with deeply overhanging eaves. Stacks are shouldered and coped in ashlar and rock-faced stone with some cans, and dormerheads have ashlar-coped skews. Cast-iron downpipes with decorative rainwater hoppers serve the building.

Internally, the building retains a good decorative scheme including plain cornices, boarded timber dadoes and brass sash lifts. The porch has a panelled dado and concave soffits. The hall features a timber screen and coloured glass to the door. The timber staircase has a panelled dado with turned balusters and carved square-section newel posts. The principal room, positioned at the centre of the south-east elevation at ground level, features round-headed arches containing decoratively-astragalled display cupboards over arcaded shelves flanking a classically-detailed fireplace. The fireplace has a panelled overmantel, decorative frieze, cornice and flanking fluted columns with crocket capitals. Segmental-headed window arches frame the tripartite window, which includes a windowseat on turned legs. A modillioned cornice and six plasterwork ceiling roses complete the scheme. Sliding doors open to an adjoining smaller room featuring a timber Arts and Crafts style fireplace with a tall overmantel and inset Delft tiles depicting Oriental figures. A press with carved and decoratively-astragalled doors is also present. The first floor retains original Arts and Crafts style panelled timber fireplaces with tiled slips throughout.

An ancillary harled pavilion contains two sets of broad part-glazed 2-leaf timber doors and three fluted timber columns below a segmentally-arched latticework frieze.

The garden features low rubble walls associated with designed garden features including a circular garden and steps. Semicircular-coped squared rubble and random rubble boundary walls enclose the site. Ball-finialled square-section corniced ashlar gatepiers with quadrants are set to the north-west, and square-coped piers with a timber gate occupy the north-east.