Northbank House, 5 Kensington Road, Glasgow

Northbank House, located at 5 Kensington Road in Glasgow, is a mid-19th century villa featuring two storeys and attics. An addition was made to the east side in 1893, designed by architect Alexander Skirving, which effectively doubled the size of the building. The villa showcases Scottish Jacobean architectural elements, constructed from stugged ashlar coursers with polished dressings and a bull-faced low plinth that slopes at the north.

The north elevation includes mostly mullioned windows with hood-moulds. The left section, added in 1893, is recessed and features a crenellated porch that projects from the re-entrant angle. There is a conical-roofed, round turret at the left, which has mullioned and transomed windows that rise above the eaves. The porch contains a pointed doorway with moulded reveals, a hood-mould, and a fanlight, along with a perron supported by arcaded balustraded bull-faced piers and a retaining wall, complemented by two wrought-iron lamps. The right section has a tripartite ground floor with a gabled dormerhead, featuring a dummy gun loop above the window. The right bay is slightly advanced and includes a two-storey canted window below a pointed attic light, with a gable that has kneelers. A string course runs at the first-floor cill level, and the building features mostly apex stacks and slate roofs. The west elevation has a two-storey canted window, and there is a gambrel-roofed single-storey wash house at the southeast, both designed by Skirving.

Inside, the front ground floor rooms and hall are adorned with decorative plasterwork cornices and ribbed ceilings, along with carved wooden chimney pieces in the hall and dining room. The library includes fitted low bookshelf cabinets that incorporate a chimneypiece. The staircase features an unusual wood-framed balustrade, and there is a modern steel fire escape connecting the attic to the first floor. The stair and porch windows are made of leaded glass.

The property is also marked by two pairs of chamfered, square gatepiers topped with shaped pyramidal caps, linked by a low retaining wall, all constructed from ashlar. Decorative wrought-iron gates complete the entrance.