Former Stable Block, Balfunning House

Former Stable Block, Balfunning House

Probably designed by James Thomson of Baird and Thomson of Glasgow, 1883-84. This single-storey building with attic forms a U-plan around a courtyard and has been converted to flats. It was originally constructed as a stable block.

The building is constructed of coursed, slightly rockfaced sandstone with droved margins at the arrises and droved ashlar dressings. The west side is harled. Main gables are crowstepped with beaked skewputts. There is an eaves cornice throughout, and windows have chamfered surrounds. The roofs are of grey slate.

The main block's south elevation (entrance front) is symmetrically arranged in five bays. A central gabled bay with breaking eaves and a crested ball finial dominates the composition. This bay contains a round-arched window set within the gable and, below it, a segmental-headed carriage entrance with a roll-moulded architrave. To each side are gabled dormer windows with breaking eaves, moulded coping and roll-like skewputts, flanked below by pairs of small segmental-headed windows.

The north elevation comprises four bays with projecting gable ends to the outer flanking bays, the right one being shorter. The right return of the left wing has been substantially altered with late 20th-century boarded timber infill above a large glazed area containing a two-leaf door and large flanking bipartite windows. A window that formerly served as an entrance sits to the right. To the left return of the right gabled bay is an entrance with a double roll-moulded surround and a two-leaf boarded timber door; above is a rectangular two-light fanlight set within the main architrave. A re-used lintel inscribed 'A.B.1723.HC' is built in at this location. A window and a breaking-eaves corniced segmental-headed dormer occupy the left portion. The central gabled bay, set back slightly left of centre, has a crested ball finial and a round-arched window to the gable, with a chamfered segmental-headed carriage entrance below. The pend (passage) returns have late 20th-century part-glazed replacement doors. A window sits to the right.

The east elevation has a near-central entrance with a segmental-headed timber lintel and fanlight with stone lintel above a panelled timber door, topped by a two-light rectangular fanlight. A gabled bay to the left contains two ground-floor windows with a segmental-headed attic window centred above. Two windows occupy the outer right, above which is a breaking-eaves dormer with a crowstepped gable, probably formerly a hayloft pitching door but now infilled with boarded timber to its lower part.

The west elevation mirrors this arrangement, with a gabled bay to the right, a large inserted or enlarged window to the left of the ground floor with a segmental-headed window above it, and a window to the left of the ground floor. A breaking-eaves dormer with a crowstepped gable, probably formerly a hayloft pitching door with its lower part now infilled with boarded timber, sits above.

Windows throughout are mainly four and six-pane timber sash and case designs. Coped rendered gablehead stacks with round cans sit at the east and west ends. Original cast-iron rainwater goods survive on the south side.

The block to the north has a south elevation of three bays. A formerly large segmental-headed entrance to the left is partially infilled with boarded timber and fitted with a glazed two-leaf replacement door. To the right is a large inserted two-bay garage opening, with a window above each bay, the central one being larger. The west gable end has two windows to each floor, with the ground-floor right window being smaller. The east elevation has a central window to the ground floor and first floor, with the first-floor window being the larger. The west elevation is blank. Multipane timber casements serve the south side, with mainly four-pane timber sash and case windows elsewhere. This block has a grey slate roof and a coped gablehead stack with round cans to the west.

The interiors were not inspected as of 1999.