Description

William Mackison, 1871; executed by various architects 1876-92, including David Rhind (nos 85,87) with detail deviations from Mackison's scheme. 4-storey and attic, tenemental and commercial terrace with shopfronts to ground floor, mezzanine at Murraygate angle; 31 bays to Commercial Street, 1 bay to Meadowside, 6 bays to Murraygate, rounded angle bays. Sandstone ashlar, channelled to 1st floor (smooth at nos 85, 87), slate roof. Pilasters between sections and at angles, channelled to ground floor, panelled to 1st and 2nd rising to festooned capitals at consoled main cornice, paired to 3rd; corniced ground floor, cill band to 1st floor incorporating aproned windows (balustraded to nos 85-95), cill band to 2nd floor, wallhead

course, corniced blocking course. Pilastered and consoled doorpiece with broken pediment and cartouche at no 73; architraved doors and windows to ground floor at nos 85, 87; elaborate doorpiece at rounded angle to Meadowside consisting of 2-leaf panelled doors with basket-arch fanlight, moulded and splayed doorcase with acanthus leaf decoration and cartouche keystone, flanked by columns with composite capitals and keystoned round-headed sidelights, entablature with mannered and balustraded parapet; doors and windows altered elsewhere

at ground floor. Architraved windows to 1st floor with alternate

segmental and triangular pediments, pilastered at nos 85, 87 with

3 centre windows linked by entablature with central segmental pediment, tripartites with central consoled triangular open pediment to Meadowside and angle to right, and at Murraygate angle and flanking returns; keystoned round-headed windows with nook shafts and continuous hoodmould to 2nd floor, tripartites to Meadowside and angles as above; architraved and keystoned windows to 3rd floor, tripartites to Meadowside and angles as above; attic tripartites to Murraygate angle and flanking returns; square-headed dormers to nos 73-87 and Murraygate, round-headed to nos 89-99 and Meadowside. Corniced axial

stacks. Elongated domed roof with cast-iron crown at Meadowside angle; 3rd floor and attic and hemispherical dome at Murraygate rebuilt and altered.

COMMERCIAL STREET ELEVATION: 31 bays arranged 4-7-7-7-5-1, each group consisting of doors and shopfronts to ground floor and windows to 1st, 2nd 3rd and attic floors as detailed above. Angle bay to left; door to ground floor, tripartite windows to 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors, lucarne to dome. Angle bay to right; shopfront (door removed) with circa 1900 mezzanine window, tripartite window to 1st, 2nd, 3rd and attic floors.

Meadow Entry situated between nos 91 and 93.

MEADOWSIDE ELEVATION: shopfront to ground floor, tripartite window to 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors, dormer.

MURRAYGATE ELEVATION: shopfronts to ground floor with mezzanine windows to top; windows to 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors, bay at left and 4th bay from left.

REAR ELEVATION: symmetrically arranged single and bipartite windows with 2-pane sash and case glazing; various alterations and additions.

INTERIOR: not seen.

Statement of Interest

Designed as a result of the 1871 Improvement Act.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17575431

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey