Teasses House

Teasses House

Teasses House is a complex building with a layered architectural history. The original structure was a plain neo-Jacobean house designed by William Burn and built in 1825–26. This was substantially enlarged and remodelled in the Tudor-Jacobean style by John Currie of Elie in 1879 (a datestone marks this work above the south entrance). The interior was further remodelled around 1933–34 by architects James Gillespie and Scott.

The present house is irregular in plan, dominated by a large square entrance tower on the south side (added in 1879) and a projecting wing at the rear, also a later addition. The main block rises two storeys over a basement, with three storeys in the fall of ground. It is built of grey sandstone rubble in courses with ashlar dressings. The elevations are deliberately asymmetrical, featuring canted and square projecting bays. The principal windows at main floor and tower level have Tudor-style drip moulds. A coped parapet with incised vertical flute detailing runs along the wallhead. Triangular wallhead pediments originally rose above the parapet and screened turrets with spirelet roofs, which were later removed. Bartizans display crosslet loops, arrow slots and quatrefoil detailing. The chimney stacks are asymmetrically disposed, grouped in pairs and triples in neo-Jacobethan arrangements. The north rear elevation is notably plainer.

The south (entrance) elevation presents five bays with the three-storey entrance tower projecting at the centre. The doorpiece is a pointed segmental arch with a timber neo-perpendicular fanlight, part of the 1930s alterations. A base course and string course at first floor level mark the composition, stepped at the returns of the entrance tower and fitted with a machicolated corbel course on the main elevations below. Single windows flank the tower at first floor level; the ground floor positions are blind. Outer canted bays contain mullioned windows facing north: five-light on the left, four-light on the right. The tower carries perpendicular cusp-traceried square-headed windows at the first and second stages: two-light at first, three-light at second. The tower top is asymmetrical, with narrow corbelled bartizans at each angle sitting over octagonal angle buttresses. The bartizans are battlemented except on the south-east, which carries a masonry spirelet. The roof steps down over the right-hand wing, possibly indicating survival of the pre-1879 building in this section.

The west elevation rises three storeys and presents an asymmetrical, stepped two-bay arrangement. The right-hand bay projects slightly and features a full-height canted bay. To the left is a recessed bay containing a triangular-plan oriel at first floor, corbelled out over a wall buttress and flanked by a pair of basement windows. Above the oriel is a two-light window with a triangular wallhead gablet. Battlemented and spireletted corbelled bartizans rise above the wallhead at the angles. A detached nook shaft with carved foliate capital marks the angle of the right-hand projecting bay.

The north (rear) elevation is plainer, presenting a long two-storey frontage with a gable and projecting chimney-breast to the right. A wing projects from the centre (part of the 1879 addition) and is three bays deep. In the south-west re-entrant angle sits a small single-storey porch with decorative cast-iron brackets; a cellar door opens from the basement below. To the left of the projecting wing is a two-bay section with varied openings showing chamfered arrises. To the right of the wing rises a large three-light arched stair window.

The east elevation presents an asymmetrical stepped frontage with various projecting rectangular bays and an eventful roofline. A corbelled chimney-breast projects on the left, while a curvilinear parapet screens a slated spirelet on the right.

The interior retains much of the 1930s refurbishment by Gillespie and Scott. The main staircase is a timber example with twisted balusters and bulbous knops at the lower sections, dating from 1879. The principal rooms at first floor retain elaborate plaster cornices from 1879. Bedrooms at second floor have plainer straight coved ceilings with some lesser plaster cornices. The billiard room and dining room on the first floor contain fine neo-Jacobethan timber chimney-pieces; that in the dining room features cherub detailing in its frieze and was simplified in 1933 from the original 1879 design. A Carolinian-style chimney-piece of 1933 stands in the drawing room. Timber bolection-moulded doorcases are found throughout.