Forth Park Hospital, Bennochy Road, Kirkcaldy

Forth Park Hospital, Bennochy Road, Kirkcaldy

This is a substantial Victorian mansion, possibly designed by William Nixon around 1860, with a north-east wing added in 1902 by James Gillespie & Scott. The building was converted to a hospital administrative block in 1933–35 by Williamson & Hubbard. It is a 2- and 3-storey, 3-bay Tudor Jacobean villa dominated by a 4-stage entrance tower.

The exterior is constructed of rock-faced squared rubble with ashlar quoins and polished dressings. The base course is stugged, and there is a band course incorporating a hoodmould over the western door, an eaves course and cavetto cornice to the tower. The entrance doorcase features a step-moulded pointed arch with attached columns and floreate capitals. The building displays characteristic Tudor Jacobean ornament: curvilinear gables and dormerheads, a corbelled and domed turret, strapwork pediments, crenellated windowheads and wallhead to the tower and north-west corner, hoodmoulds, and moulded stop-chamfered arrises.

The western (entrance) elevation centres on a projecting stair tower with a deep-set part-glazed panelled timber door decorated with ornamental ironwork to the glazed panels below a multi-pane pointed-arch fanlight. A small stone shield sits above with a later lamp and stepped hoodmould; adjacent to this is a 2nd-stage bipartite window with hoodmould and strapwork pediment, followed by a further hoodmoulded bipartite window to the 3rd stage and a finialled gable above with a narrow hoodmoulded light. The return to the left has a hoodmoulded 1st-stage window and blank 2nd stage, giving way to a crenellated wallhead. The return to the right features a 3rd-stage window below a crenellated wallhead with a grouped shouldered stack and brattishing at the ridge. A recessed bay to the right of centre contains a slightly advanced crenellated bipartite window at ground level and two windows above, each breaking into the eaves with finialled dormerheads and a small cusped quadripartite foil on the tympanum. A deeply recessed bay to the left of centre has two hoodmoulded ground-floor windows and a further small light to the outer left, two 1st-floor windows, a bipartite window and crenellated wallhead above, and a corbelled turret with a window and three glazed oculi below a spike-finialled dome at the outer left angle.

The south elevation is 4-bayed. The bay to the left of centre has two hoodmoulded ground-floor windows and a bipartite window breaking the eaves into a monogrammed dormerhead above. A slightly advanced bay to the outer left has a crenellated canted tripartite ground-floor window and a bipartite window with strapwork pediment above, with a further small hoodmoulded light in the gablehead. The bay to the right of centre mirrors that to the left, with a shouldered entrance below a small window in a narrow outer-right bay.

The east elevation comprises a variety of elements, including a recessed bay to the left with a projecting rounded stair tower and small conical roof and porch to the outer left, and an advanced range to the right with three 1st-floor windows breaking into the eaves with dormerheads and a broad gable on the left return.

The north elevation features a later dry-dashed extension which is not included in this listing.

Windows are fitted with plate glass in timber sash and case frames, except on the east where some top-opening ground-floor windows are present. The roof is covered with grey slates; the conical roof to the east and the tower roof to the west feature alternating bands of fishscale pattern. Coped ashlar octagonal grouped stacks are present, with ashlar-coped skews incorporating moulded and finialled skewputts.

The interior contains fine decorative plasterwork cornices and panelled ceilings, panelled timber dadoes, shutters and architraved panelled doors. The vestibule has a quadripartite rib-vault with floreate bosses, a high panelled dado with linenfold upper panels and a mosaic tiled floor. A 2-lead part-glazed screen door with flanking screens and a full-width multi-pane fanlight opens into the inner hall, which is lined with paired marble Corinthian columns and pilasters, a marble fireplace and fender. A black marble fireplace is located in the principal ground-floor room. The dog-leg staircase features decorative timber balusters, newel-post finials and timber handrails. The 1st-floor landing contains rectangular and circular rooflights of decorative astragalled coloured glass. A grey and white marble-lined bathroom retains a roll-top cast-iron bath, an oval marble-topped hand basin on a chrome stand and chrome fittings.

Associated with the main house is a former coach house, stables and cottage of squared rubble with a slated roof and segmental and round-headed openings. The Hendry Road (east) elevation has a blocked hoodmoulded cart-arch with a lunette to a centre gable, a further gable to the right with two small ground-floor windows and a large window (converted hayloft) in the gablehead, and a lower piended range to the left. This arrangement dates from 1899 and was executed by Gillespie & Scott. The south elevation features square-section coped gatepiers flanking an entrance to a small courtyard with a variety of elements including a large round-arched stone water trough. The north elevation has a lower centre range (former stable) flanked by higher gables, the left gable being from a former cottage possibly designed by Forbes Smith in 1899.

The site is enclosed by coped rubble boundary walls.