Rosetta House

Rosetta House

Built in 1807 for Thomas Young, Rosetta House is a substantial 2-storey country mansion with attic and basement, set on a rectangular plan with three bays. The central entrance bay projects slightly forward and is surmounted by a pediment. A bowed bay projects from the rear elevation, with a later single-storey bowed outshoot added to one side at ground floor level, supported on stilts above a retaining garden wall.

The walls are constructed of whinstone rubble with dressed sandstone ashlar margins and long and short quoins. A string course marks the ground floor level, and the eaves are finished with a mutuled course.

The principal (east) elevation is essentially two-storey over a basement, arranged in three bays. The central bay projects slightly and is crowned with a pediment. Six stone steps lead up to a pilastered door surround supporting an entablature, with a two-leaf timber entrance door fitted with a five-light glazed fanlight and opening into a semi-glazed panelled inner door. The outer bays contain windows. The first floor has three regularly placed bays, with a triangular pediment rising above the central bay to form an attic containing an elliptical window in the tympanum. The basement has windows in the outer bays; the central bay is largely concealed by the entrance steps, though a boarded door exists within the right return. Inset ashlar ogee-curved wing walls form a passage to the front of the basement. Wrought-iron railings with fleur-de-lis and pinecone heads surmount the wall and follow its line, flanking the ground floor entrance stairs. Stone obelisks terminate the outer piers of the railings, each surmounted by a wrought-iron urn.

The north elevation displays two regularly placed bays at each floor, with two diagonally placed two-pane Carron lights serving the attic. An inset retaining wall forms a passage at basement level, accessed by a flight of ashlar steps to the right of the elevation.

The west (rear) elevation is essentially three bays with regular fenestration to the basement, ground, and first floors on the outer bays. The central bay features tripartite windows on the upper floors, with a glazed middle light and blind outer lights, contained within a projecting bow that rises into a crenellated wallhead. Smaller windows light the returns of the basement bow. A later single-storey outshoot with a semicircular end sits in the right re-entrant angle of the central bow at ground floor level, resting on the retaining garden wall; it has windows to its end and right return and a crenellated wallhead. A door at basement level opens directly below the outshoot.

The south elevation shows two regularly placed bays at each floor, with an inset retaining wall at basement level accessed by a flight of ashlar steps to the left.

Windows throughout are 12-pane timber sash and case, except for the later stilted outshoot which has 8-pane windows. Two-pane cast-iron Carron lights light the north attic elevation, with a further roof light partially concealed by the castellated bow. The roof is finished in piended grey slate over the outer bays, with a pitched roof to the rear of the central bay behind the castellated bow. Lead ridging runs throughout with slate flashings. Painted cast-iron rainwater goods drain the roof. Paired ashlar stacks flank the central bay at roofline, each with a plain neck cope and six plain cans.

The interior is organised around a central lobby, from which a timber-panelled door opens into the dining room to the left and drawing room to the right. The dining room has a service room to its rear, while the drawing room extends the full length of the house. An oval smoking room is positioned to the rear, contained within the bowed projection. Principal rooms are fitted with marble fireplaces; the drawing room contains an earlier cast-iron fireback. A central geometric stone staircase with plain cast-iron balustrade connects the first floor (bedrooms) with the basement (kitchen and service rooms).