Sauchendene, 52 Bennochy Road, Kirkcaldy

Sauchendene, 52 Bennochy Road, Kirkcaldy

A large two-storey villa with attic, built around 1910 (after 1907), displaying a distinctive blend of Tudor-Bethan half-timbered gables combined with elaborate neo-Georgian and Arts and Crafts interior design. The building is constructed in grey stugged and snecked rubble with polished ashlar dressings and sits beneath a grey slated roof with red ridge tiles.

The principal south elevation features a broad gabled bay on the left side, which projects slightly and contains a very shallow three-windowed parapetted bow swept out from the wall-plane at ground floor level, with two windows at first floor above and a Venetian window set within a half-timbered gable crowned with studded bargeboards. To the right are four regular bays set back, the first containing an arched and keystoned garden entrance with glazed multi-paned two-leaf doors and a radial-astragalled fanlight, with a blind above at first floor level. The remaining three bays to the right are identical, with architraves linked by apron panels that emphasise verticality. Throughout the elevation, tall elongated windows are set in shallow polished ashlar corniced architraves, with ground and first floor architraves further linked by apron panels. Tall corniced wallhead stacks punctuate the roofline.

The east elevation has a blind section to the left and three regular bays to the right. A gabled, pitched-roofed porch projects at the left-hand entrance bay, featuring an overhanging slated roof with red ridge tiles and a pierced timbered pediment raised over paired square-plan fluted timber columns with glazed multi-paned flanks. The deep-set panelled timber door has a small-pane fanlight over a transom, and two-leaf inner doors with half-glazed, panelled lower sections topped with serpentine curves, the upper sections containing leaded obscured glass with serpentine curved lower edges. The porch floor is polished marble, and a curved cast-iron balcony is positioned above the porch entrance. A moulded doorcase marks the principal entry point of the building.

The north elevation contains a two-storey service block with a series of rear entrances at ground level, sheltered by a lean-to glass canopy canted out on decorative cusped timber brackets.

The west elevation displays a full-height three-light bowed window to the left, with a contemporary single-storey glazed conservatory with slated piend roof at ground floor to the right and a single window at first floor above. A bipartite dormer window occupies the slope of the roof immediately to the left of a tall wallhead stack positioned over the centre.

Windows throughout the building feature multi-pane glazing over plate glass in timber sash and case frames, with 12-panes at ground floor and 6-panes at first floor level. Cavetto-coped squared rubble stacks with a full complement of cans top the walls.

The interior displays elaborate neo-Georgian and Arts and Crafts detailing. The entrance hall contains an impressive tiled angle fireplace with an original copper grate, canopy and fender set in white and blue glazed miniature tiles, all housed within a mahogany chimneypiece and hood. The Drawing Room is a finely detailed neo-classical space featuring dado-wainscot, a neo-classical chimneypiece with blue-veined marble slip and fender, and a cast-iron grate with neo-classical figurative relief procession at its centre tablet. Glazed and keystoned arched china cabinet and bookshelf recesses with slender Queen Anne style timber astragals line the walls, while the ceiling is elaborately beaded and decorated with gilt plaster ornament.

The Dining Room occupies the north-west corner with its bowed bay projecting from the west elevation. It displays more vigorous early 18th-century style detailing, including serpentine over-door details, a deep frieze with baroque picture panels, and a compartmentalised ceiling. An 'inglenook' recess to the north is marked by a pair of early 18th-century style Ionic capitals with canted volutes. The room retains its original dark timber chimneypiece, bookcases with diamond-patterned glazed upper doors, and doors adorned with Art Nouveau relief copper doorplates and doorknobs. Original door furniture is retained throughout the building.

A half-turn stair with landings rises through the building, featuring timber balusters that alternate between twisted and plain square-section forms. A large stair window to the north contains clear leaded glass with an arched central feature.

The first floor bedrooms are each individually detailed with tiled fireplaces topped by tall white-painted Queen Anne chimneypieces. Some fireplaces feature tiles delicately hand-painted in the manner of 18th-century Delftware, while one displays oriental figures.

The boundary walls are constructed of semicircular-coped squared rubble, with cavetto-coped, square-section ashlar gatepiers marking the entrance points.