Oakfield, 81 Bank Street, Irvine

Dated 1878, Mayfield comprises a mirrored pair of substantial, two-storey, two-bay, L-plan, Baronial-style houses forming a semi-detached T-plan arrangement at 79 and 81 Bank Street, Irvine. The houses are constructed of squared and snecked red sandstone, with buff sandstone ashlar dressings, rubble stone to the sides and rear, a battered base course, crowstepped gables and dormers, a bracketted eaves cornice, chamfered quoins, chamfered margins, and stone mullions.

The south-east (principal) elevation is symmetrical. No. 79 is on the left and No. 81 on the right. Each has a double advanced gable with a projecting three-light window at ground floor featuring cable moulding and weathered coping, and a bipartite window at first floor with a square panel above, finished with a rope hoodmould having knotted label stops. A round-headed slit opening is present in the gable head. A porch with a crowstepped single-pitch roof sits in the re-entrant angle, incorporating a basket-arched opening with cable moulding and a square light above, also with cable moulding. Windows flank the porch, and another is located in the return of the porch. A crowstepped dormerheaded window has a bipartite design, and a similarly detailed single window is found in the return of the advanced gable to the centre.

The north-east and south-west elevations are blank gable ends. The north-west elevation features a brick-built, single-storey addition in the centre, including a door and window in the return, abutting the ground floor inner bays. Gabled dormerheads are above, with a small window between. Plain margins are present. A conservatory is positioned at the rear of No. 79, possibly original to the house, it has a brick base, timber frame, a miniature cupola feature with stained glass and a piended roof with a finial.

Timber sash and case windows are original to No. 79, featuring two panes at the front and four panes at the rear. Modern two-pane replacements are found in No. 81. Leaded lights and stained glass are incorporated into the porch and the ground floor bay on the left side of No. 79. The roof is covered in grey slate, with stone skews and skewputts, and ashlar stacks are located at the gablehead and ridge of the dividing wall. Cast-iron downpipes with a hopper dated 1878 are present at the valley of the double gable.

The interior of No. 79 retains elaborate plasterwork in the principal rooms, including strapwork ceiling decoration with rosettes and shell motifs, floreate cornices, egg and dart cornices, dentil cornices, arches, and consoles in the hall. Cast-iron banisters are present. Ornate glazed floor tiles and wall tiles, extending to dado height, are found in the entrance porch. No. 81 has lost its original features.

Brick sheds are located in the gardens at the rear. Rubble stone boundary walls, with glazed coping to the sides and rear and chamfered ashlar coping to the front, surround the property. Square section battered gatepiers have decorative bands and carved pyramidal tops.