Rosebery House, 9 King Street, Inverkeithing

Rosebery House is a substantial town house located at 9 King Street, Inverkeithing, dating back to the 16th century with alterations and extensions in the 17th and 18th centuries. An 18th-century, single-storey Gothic-detailed former doctor’s surgery, built of ashlar, adjoins the northwest corner.

The original 16th-century block runs parallel to King Street and features a vaulted ground floor with Gothic arched openings, indicating the first phase of construction. It has a pilastered doorpiece and a lean-to roof. A western wing, built between 1705 and 1711 and running parallel to Port Street, also has a partially vaulted ground floor and crowstepped gables to the south and part of the north, with cat-slide dormers to the southwest.

The main north-facing elevation has three bays. A central Doric pilastered doorway is topped by a triglyphed and bracketed entablature, a bat-wheel fanlight, and a timber panelled door. There are single windows to the left and a small window to the far right. Four unevenly spaced windows are on the first floor. The projecting former surgery has droved rybats, base and eaves courses, a Gothic arched, hoodmoulded doorway, and flanking chamfered windows in a similar style. It is covered by a slate roof.

The west elevation features two first-floor windows and three cat-slide dormers, as well as two cast-iron roof lights. The rear (south) elevation showcases the 1705-1711 section with a central ground floor window (formerly a door), two first floor windows, one 2nd floor window off-centre to the right, and two square attic windows. To the right return are single windows at ground, first, and second floor levels. The original 16th-century block has a full-height, flat-roofed stair tower extension with a lean-to porch and an irregular glazing pattern. A roll-moulded architrave is present at the first-floor window to the right. The east elevation has a lean-to gable and a ground level that falls to the east, with a small square third-floor window to the left.

The windows are predominantly plate glass in timber sash and case frames at ground and first floors, with 4- and 12-pane timber sash and case (and some tilt top) windows on the third floor. The main block has a lean-to roof, while the 1705-1711 wing features a pitched roof covered in grey slates. The gableheads and ridge stacks are coped and rendered, with circular clay cans.

Internally, the entrance on the south side has stone flags, and the vaulted ground floor retains Gothic arched, roll-moulded openings. A large kitchen fireplace is situated on the first floor of the main block. Most rooms were subdivided in the 20th century for use as a rooming house.

An outbuilding, a low-pitched lean-to single-storey former stable, is located to the east, constructed of tooled, squared rubble. A circular, random rubble draw-well is situated in the former courtyard to the southeast. A marriage lintel, an ashlar block inscribed and dated ‘17 J D B F 17’, serves as a seat next to the well; it was originally part of a demolished garden house. Droved and coped square-plan ashlar gatepiers mark the boundary and random-rubble coped walls enclose the east and west areas, with remnants of a wall at the rear.