Woodlands, Windyknowe Road, Galashiels

Woodlands, Windyknowe Road, Galashiels

Woodlands is a substantial villa set on a gently sloping site, combining a mid-19th-century core with major neo-Elizabethan additions and a notable conservatory. The property was comprehensively remodelled by architect George Henderson in 1884–5.

The original villa dates to around 1855 and comprises a 2-storey, square-plan Italianate structure with a single-storey L-plan kitchen and store range to the rear, enclosed by a coped retaining wall into raised ground. The villa features overhanging bracketed eaves and single and bipartite segmental arched windows. The walls are rubble with stugged sandstone quoins and margins finished with smooth stop-chamfered arises. Windows are plate glass in timber sash and case frames, with a leaded bipartite window serving the stair. The roof is platform piended with graduated slate, corniced squared wallhead and ridge stacks, and cast-iron rainwater goods.

The 1884 additions form a 3-storey, 5-bay, asymmetrical F-plan frontage in neo-Elizabethan style. Stepped advanced gabled bays stand to the right, with a slender 4-stage hexagonal crenellated stair tower sited at the far right re-entrant angle. A canted oriel window sits above a square-plan crenulated entrance porch to the left re-entrant angle of a smaller advanced gabled bay with an arched doorway and reticulated tracery window. The elevation displays various neo-Tudor openings: a large 8-light slightly advanced square-plan crenellated window to the entrance hall features cushed reticulated tracery; projecting canted mullioned and transomed round-headed windows light the outer gabled bays; Elizabethan hood-moulded, multiply transomed and mullioned windows serve the rectangular canted bays. Other windows include squared and cusped heads, with squared, ogee and composite mouldings and label stops. The parapets are crenellated and gabled. Side-hung bronze casement windows and timber boarded doors with decorative cast-iron strap hinges are fitted throughout, whilst tall octagonal stone chimney stacks with corniced and shouldered bases and cast-iron rainwater goods with decorative square curved hoppers complete the external treatment.

The interior preserves a fine decorative scheme in Gothic style dating to 1884, which incorporates elements of the earlier villa interiors. The panelled timber manorial entrance hall features a timber four-centred arched arcade at the half-landing and a carved wooden chimneypiece with an arched dark red alabaster fire surround. A pictorial stained glass window and stone shouldered arched doorway lead to a curved stone tower stair. The drawing room is distinguished by ornate plasterwork with a pillastered frieze and a French alabaster chimneypiece, whilst the dining room features neo-Rococo plasterwork and a pink veined alabaster chimneypiece. A timber-panelled library is present, and the main stair and separate service stair feature coloured leaded glazing.

The conservatory, designed by Mackenzie and Moncur in 1884, is an asymmetrical hexagonal-ended-plan structure built into the rising ground. It is constructed in stained timber with clear glazing and a rock-faced rubble canted plinth featuring a moulded string course at floor level. A round-arched door and oval window give access to the store below. The glazing follows a vertical pattern with plain and swan-neck scrolled pediments and a wooden ballustraded cornice; the hexagonal section roof is finished in clear polycarbonate.

Boundary walls include coursed rubble to the north and stepped coursed rubble with saddle-backed copes to the southwest, which incorporates a pointed segmental-arched gateway linking to the main gateway to the south (listed separately). The garden is furnished with a decorative cast-iron street lamp and acorn-headed clothes poles.