Irvine Development Corporation, Perceton House, Irvine

Perceton House is a classical country house built around 1770, comprising two storeys with an attic and raised basement. It is a symmetrical composition of four bays with flanking single-bay wings and advanced single-storey pavilions, which were converted to offices in 1968 and remain in use as such.

The exterior is finished in white painted harl with contrasting painted margins, raised margins and quoins, a base course and cornice. Three piended tripartite dormers rise from the roof. The principal (north-east) elevation features a central flight of stairs with curved rails oversailing the basement, leading to a pedimented Doric-columned porch with entablature and a two-leaf part-glazed entrance door. Advanced single-bay pavilions with piended roofs occupy the outer bays. Linking corridors at ground and first-storey levels connect to a 1968 three-storey multi-bay office addition extending to the rear of the property.

The south-west (garden) elevation is symmetrical, with a central balustraded canted bay and a single tripartite window to the first storey at the left. Three piened attic dormers are positioned as on the principal elevation.

Windows are predominantly six-over-six-pane timber sash and case windows. The roofs are piended with grey slate coverings. Tall coped roof stacks are present, with a wallhead stack to the south-west wing.

The interior was converted to office accommodation in 1968, with later twentieth-century modifications. The original room layout remains largely intact. Some decorative cornicing and timber panelling survive, along with a single decorative carved fire surround. Certain rooms in the basement are vaulted, and a pair of round-arched niches is present in the entrance hall.

The house was built by William Macredie in 1770, replacing an earlier house on land the family had acquired in 1720. It remained in the Macredie family until 1929, when it was purchased by the Mitchell family. The Irvine Development Corporation acquired it in 1968 and converted it to their headquarters, constructing a large three-storey extension perpendicular to the house at its north-west corner. This extension was designed to not compromise the view of the principal elevation, allowing the house to retain a sense of its original isolation. The building sits within its immediate woodlands setting and gardens to the north-east, south-west and south-east, though some housing development has occurred in the wider surrounding area. The listing category was changed from A to B in 2013, at which point the 1968 extension was not considered to be of special interest.