Ardlea, 54 Hope Street, Inverkeithing

Ardlea, 54 Hope Street, Inverkeithing

Built in 1797, Ardlea is a 2-storey and attic, 3-bay rectangular-plan former manse with extensive service wings added to the rear during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The principal east elevation was originally harled but is now random rubble; the north, west and south elevations are rendered. Details include droved stone cills with painted margins to the east, droved rybats and strip quoins. A corniced entrance porch faces south. The roof features polygonal piended dormers and a nepus-gabled stair tower on the west rear elevation.

The principal east elevation is symmetrical, with 3 windows at ground and first floor levels. The 2 outer bays have polygonal piended dormers with slate cheeks; 2 central cast-iron rooflights are fitted above. A recessed single-storey flat-roofed porch with a window is positioned left of centre. To its left is a further recessed single-storey piended extension with a window. To the right of the porch, a 3-bay single-storey piended extension contains windows and a door. A lean-to store adjoins to the far right.

The north elevation has advanced single-storey extensions to the left, receding to the right, forming varied service wings. A small window sits left of the gablehead of the main block.

The west rear elevation has irregular fenestration. A central, slightly advanced full-height nepus-gabled stair tower marks the main block, with a later lean-to entrance porch to the right. An advanced single-storey piended extension to the far right has an additional lean-to entrance porch to its left return. Service wings of single-storey piended form are positioned off-centre left, with an additional L-plan service wing range further left.

The south entrance elevation has a wide central corniced flat-roofed entrance porch containing a recessed doorway with a multi-paned fanlight to its right and a window to its left. A window to the right return of the porch completes this section. To the right of the porch is a window to the main block, with an advanced single-storey extension adjoining the porch and main block to the left.

The main block retains 12-pane timber sash and case windows to the east and south; late 20th-century 2-pane metal windows are used elsewhere. Roofs are pitched and piended, covered with concrete tiles, with straight stone skews and corniced ashlar gablehead stacks. A single ashlar stack rises from the nepus gable to the west; brick stacks serve the service wings, with circular clay cans throughout.

Interior features include small black and white mid to later 19th-century floor tiles in the porch and stone flags in the hall. Most rooms retain plain late 18th-century cornices; the hall and a 19th-century south-west addition have decorative moulded cornices. An original late 18th-century paint scheme survives in most rooms, comprising green-blue, pink and yellow colours, though not in the entrance passage. Two front rooms at ground floor level have grained dados. The main block features a stone stair at the rear with grey marbling to the sides, cast-iron balusters and a mahogany handrail. No fireplaces remain on the ground floor, but original fireplace surrounds survive to the principal bedrooms at first floor. Nearly all doors are of original late 18th-century date. The main ground floor room has an elaborate dentilled architrave.

Boundary walls of coped random rubble enclose what was formerly glebe land, positioned between railway lines to the east and west of the house. Square-plan stop-chamfered stone gatepiers with corniced caps stand to the east of the house, possibly repositioned from a former main gateway at the south-west when the Forth Bridge Railway was built. Stone steps from a former terraced garden survive to the south-east.