Description

James Smith of Leadbetter & Smith, 1863. Originally 2 buildings, former Magdalen Asylum facing Gorgie Road and former Girls Reformatory facing Ardmillan Terrace, with modern link and extensions.

LODGE TO MAGDALEN ASYLUM: single storey baronial gabled T-plan lodge, with extra jamb added, dominant entrance tower with conical roof and ball finial in re-entrant NW corner. Squared, snecked and stugged sandstone with ashlar dressings; chamfered arrises; cills; slit windows roundheaded; crowstepped gables. Base course.

TOWER: steps to 4-panelled door, with rectangular fanlight; flanked by slit windows. Roll-moulded string course stepping up over date plaque, 1863, above door. Heavy roll0moulded cornice.

N ELEVATION: gables bay to right with canted 4-light window; shield with initials L S and thistle finial to gablehead. Window to recessed bay to left. W ELEVATION: tower in re-entrant angle to left. Tripartite window with arrowslit window to gable; to right, gablehead stack. Vents in base course.

S ELEVATION: 2-bay at ground. Window to left narrower, slit window in gable above; thistle finial.

E ELEVATION: jamb built out from existing gable (with stack) which still has door at far left. Tripartite window with crowstepped gable above, gablehead stack. Window to N. Replacement windows; grey slates; heavily coped stacks; cast-iron gutters liberally displaced around the building. FORMER MAGDALEN ASYLUM: near-symmetrical 15-bay Baronial building composed of central 4-storey gabled tower, flanked by 4 3-storey bays and by 3 2-storey bays with attics. String course above ground floor; billetted corbel course above 1st floor. Gabled 2-storey projection to rear. Squared, snecked and stugged sandstone with some ashlar dressings. Crow-stepped gables and dormerheads throughout. E-W gables with chimneyheads. N (GORGIE ROAD) ELEVATION: arrises chamfered, stop-chamfered to wings. Central tower with ashlar dressings; roll-moulded tripartite doorway, round-arched at centre with 2-leaf door; tripartite window at 1st floor with bracketed cill, raised dressings and entablature; string course breaks up over tripartite window and plaque (ESTABLISHED 1797 BUILT 1863) to 2nd floor; bipartite window with hoodmould (initials L&S contained below( to 3rd floor. 3-storey wings with string course above ground floor, breaks over plaque in centre of E wing stating foundation stone laid 10.4.1863 by Lord Provost, Leadbetter and Smith architects. 2nd floor gabled dormerheads with alternating thistle and ball finials. Outer right 3-storey bays with canted windows at ground. 1st floor string course continues to outer wings, stepping up over central window at W; plaque (Building Committee of Directors) above in centre bay; to E narrower windows flanking that at centre at 1st floor; each group of outer bays having 2 timber bipartite dormers with piend roofs. Large single storey gabled (plain skews) sandstone hall added to W with 3 windows to gable end. To E 2-storey bay rendered extension with piend roof as beginning of modern link to old Girls' Reformatory.

S (REAR) ELEVATION: central 3-storey stair tower with gables to E and W; 2-storey bays flanking and gabled outer bays; further set back gabled bays beyond. Various single storey additions and outbuildings. Timber sash and case 8-pane windows, 3-pane to central tower. Grey slates; heavily coped stacks; skewputts; extensive cast-iron gutters and downpipes. INTERIOR: monumental moulded tripartite vestibule door echoing outer doorcase; cantilevered stair in square tower to rear, cast-iron banisters. GIRLS' REFORMATORY: 1863. Originally 3-storey cruciform-plan gabled villa with overhanging eaves, moulded bargeboards and rafters; squared, snecked and stugged sandstone, bipartite windows, chamfered arrises. Blocked to E, S and W, 1960-1, by brutal 2- and 3-storey extensions. N ELEVATION: bipartite windows throughout. Central projecting 3-storey bay, upper window in gable; 3-storey 2-bay wing to left, upper storey with smaller windows in gabled dormerheads; 2-storey bay to right, upper window breaking into gabled dormerhead. Timber sash and case lying-pane windows; grey slates; cast-iron gutters and downpipes; plain stacks. INTERIOR: not seen 1992, but clearly much altered. GATEPIERS, BOUNDARY WALL AND RAILINGS: 4 square stop-chamfered ashlar piers with bases and flat pyramidal caps. Squared and snecked rubble wall with semi-circular coping to Magdalen Asylum; lower wall, with saddleback coping and ball-finialled cast-iron railings, in front of Lodge.

Statement of Interest

Reformatory re-opened as Edinburgh Civil Defence Headquarters in 1961. Springwell House now a council run social work and health centre.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q56630929

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.

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