Broompark Day Nursery Including Boundary Walls And Gatepiers, 7 Broompark Circus

This is a large, impressive two-storey villa, now a day nursery, dating to the mid-19th century. It is likely designed by James Salmon or John Gordon, with a stair window dated 1867. The building is constructed of high-quality tooled ashlar stone with smooth margins and displays a Franco-Gothic style.

The principal (west) elevation is dominated by an off-centre three-stage entrance tower. The tower’s doorpiece is painted cream and features pilasters with foliate capitals, a semicircular fanlight, cornice, and a balustraded parapet, with a panelled timber entrance door behind. The top stage of the tower has a three-light window with a bracketed stone sill and mullions. Overhanging bracketed eaves and decorative ironwork cresting are also present. To the left of the tower is an advanced gabled bay with full-height three-light canted bay windows, those on the ground floor featuring pilastered mullions with foliate capitals. To the right, a re-entrant elevation of the tower has a blank bay now infilled to ground level with a later, flat-roofed addition.

The windows are predominantly timber sash and case windows with plate glass. The roof is covered with graded grey slates, and cast iron rainwater goods are visible.

The interior retains many high-quality original features, including deep skirting boards, shutters, some four-panel timber doors and a variety of marble fireplaces, some now painted. There is elaborate cornwork throughout, often reflecting the exterior stonework detailing. The main rooms feature elaborate corniced doorpieces. The imposing entrance hall has a coloured encaustic tiled floor, a marble fireplace with an integral overmantle mirror with classical details including flanking engaged columns with foliate capitals, and a pair of columns with foliate capitals flanking the hall. Consoles with three-dimensional classical heads in roundels are also present. The decorative timber staircase has been partially enclosed. A stained glass stair window, dated 1867 and depicting a figure with a lyre, is visible, along with an octagonal stained glass window above. A principal first-floor room features a pointed arch three-light window with slender engaged columns dividing and flanking the windows, all with flanking mirrored panels.

The boundary walls and gatepiers are also of significant quality. A pair of ashlar gatepiers with overhanging pyramidal caps topped with ball finials mark the principal entrance elevation. A low, decoratively tooled ashlar boundary wall is present with later railings. To the south and east, a decoratively tooled ashlar boundary wall features flat coping to the east and stepped flat coping to the south, punctuated by a pair of square gate piers with pyramidal caps.