12 Melville Road, Dalkeith

12 Melville Road, Dalkeith

A 2-storey Italianate villa designed by Knox and Hutton and dated 1884. The building is an asymmetrical L-plan structure with Greek classical details and a distinctive 3-stage entrance tower positioned in the south-west re-entrant angle.

The exterior is constructed in stugged squared and coursed masonry on the west and south elevations, with stugged squared and snecked stonework on the north and east elevations. Polished ashlar provides the dressings throughout. A base course runs beneath the walls, with a moulded timber eaves course above. Cill courses mark the ground and first floors, while a band course runs continuously around the tower between floors. A broad course sits below the lintel level at eaves. The windows feature red column-mullions to bipartite windows at first floor on the south and west sides, with moulded lintels throughout. Ground-floor windows are tall and narrow. The gables and dormerheads display elaborate segmental-arched bargeboarding.

The south elevation facing Melville Road comprises 2 bays. The right-hand bay is advanced and contains a tripartite pilaster-mullioned window set within a rectangular projection with windows on the return at ground level, topped by a cornice and blocking course. At first floor, this bay features a corniced bowed bipartite window set in a chamfered opening, with pilasters flanking it. An anthemion motif appears at the centre of the blocking course, and a broad dormerhead crowns the composition. The left-hand bay contains 2 windows at ground level and a dormerheaded bipartite window with a bracketed moulded cill at first floor.

The west elevation spans 3 bays with gabled outer bays, the left-hand bay being advanced. The entrance tower rises in the re-entrant angle. The tower features a corniced doorpiece on its south return, surmounted by a small pediment with acroteria. The door surround includes a moulded architrave and panelled ashlar fanlight detail, while the 2-leaf door itself has circular upper panels. To the left stands a balustrade with red balusters and a cast-iron lamp standard cradling a ball lantern. The tower contains a small narrow window at first floor on the south side, 2 windows on the west side at first floor, and a window at ground to the west. At the third stage, a mullioned and transomed window sits on each face. Angle pilasters rise through the band courses at first and second floors, then divide into 2 at the third stage. Dentil and moulded panel details appear below the second-floor windows, with festooned decoration in the frieze above. A broad eaves cornice and corner brackets support a pyramidal roof topped with a weathervane.

In the bay to the left of the tower sits a quinquelateral canted window at ground level, bipartite to the principal face, with cornice and blocking course. Above it, a first-floor window is similarly corniced and bipartite, featuring an anthemion detail. To the right stands a window in a recessed bay at ground level. At first floor in this same bay, a shaped panel occupies the centre, flanked by a corniced cill and lintel surmounted by an anthemion motif. Within this panel, a patera and the date "1884" are carved. The south return of this elevation is blank.

The east elevation displays a base course and band course between floors. A window sits to the left at first floor, with its cill course continuous from the south elevation. Windows are asymmetrically disposed across the elevation. A service wing extends to the right, featuring a boarded door and 2 windows at first floor.

The north elevation contains a mullioned and transomed stair window at centre, with another window to the right of centre at first floor. A timber apex detail crowns a gabled bay to the left. A lower 2-storey piended service wing adjoins here, with 2 windows at ground level and one window at first floor, plus another window at first floor on its return. A single-storey half-piended range adjoins at centre, featuring a modern window, a central hatch, and a boarded door to the right. The return of this range has a window and door to the right, and a modern lean-to porch is adjoined.

The sash and case windows throughout retain plate glass glazing. Coloured border glazing patterns appear in the upper panes of the second-floor tower windows, the stair window, and in the upper sashes of first-floor windows. Rendered and lined stacks rise from the roof, with gablehead stacks to the right of the west elevation and to the left of the north elevation, and a wallhead stack to the right of the north elevation. Finial blocks crown the dormerheads and gableheads. The roof is finished in grey-green slates with red ridge tiles, retaining some original cans and original rainwater goods.

The interior contains an encaustic tiled vestibule at the base of the tower, accessed by a half-turn staircase with a wooden balustrade. Fine plasterwork ornaments the rooms throughout. The dining room features an elaborate mahogany chimneypiece with an overmantel mirror, while the hall incorporates a decorative timber chimneypiece with a barometer and mirror in its overmantel.

To the east stands a row of outbuildings, including a painted brick cottage gabled to the west and piened to the east, adjoined to the boundary wall to the north.

The boundary walls are constructed of ashlar-coped rubble. The main gatepiers are fashioned from ashlar and inscribed with "Linsandel House" (a later inscription) on their respective piers. These piers display moulded, fluted and carved scrolled detailing, with cornices and pyramidal caps topped by acroteria. The wrought-iron gates feature a decorative band. Square pyramidal-capped piers stand to the north.