Brooksby House, 18 Greenock Road, Largs

Brooksby House, located at 18 Greenock Road in Largs, was likely designed by architects David and James Hamilton and built around 1840. This classical house features a symmetrical west elevation constructed of polished ashlar, with a channelled and battered basement. The windows are adorned with architraves or margins, and there is a band course above the basement and ground floors, along with an angle margins modillion cornice and blocking course on all elevations.

The south entrance elevation consists of two storeys over a basement and has three bays, with the left bay being deeply recessed and featuring a modern, harled, square lift shaft in the re-entrant angle, which blocks the original bipartite window on the west face. The central door is approached by steps and has a modern handrail, along with a raised round-headed fanlight. A projecting portico with an entablature is supported by two square piers that have chamfered angles near the base and capital. Above this, there is a single window on the first floor. The basement windows are advanced in the outer bays, while the ground floor windows feature a pierced blind balustrade and cornice. The first-floor windows have blind balconies and shallow pediments over a cornice raised on pilaster strips.

The west elevation has similarly detailed windows in the outer bays, with three central, taller advanced bays. The basement projects to create a ground floor terrace with a parapet that originally supported a verandah. There are three tall round-headed 8-pane sash windows on the ground floor, with corniced windows above. The north elevation includes a single window and a tripartite window on each floor, while the east elevation has a low flat-roofed central extension and a variety of window openings. Grouped square stacks are linked by cornices, and the roof is covered with piended slate.

Inside, the entrance hall features a central Roman Doric screen that opens to the stairwell, with corniced doors and a staircase that has a richly patterned later 19th-century cast-iron balustrade. The ground floor rooms were refitted in the latter 19th century and have coffered ceilings with egg and dart, bead and reel, and leaf and vine mouldings. One room in the southwest is decorated with grotesques and crests that include the names of literary figures.

The house is set behind a low polished ashlar boundary wall with squat gatepiers and has a rectangular walled garden enclosure to the east.