Description

David MacGibbon, 1864. Terrace of 7, 2-storey and attic 2-bay Baronial-style houses. Cream sandstone, squared and snecked bull-faced rubble with bull-faced banded dressings, and polished reveals. String course above ground floor; stop-chamfered reveals; ashlar mullions; 2-leaf herring-bone (except No 31) panelled doors with rectangular plate glass fanlights, tiled vestibules; cusped bargeboards with pierced trefoils and kingposts.

NW ELEVATION: advanced house (No 27) at centre with full-height canted window swept to square to right bay, shouldered arched window in gablehead; entrance door with single window at 1st floor to left bay. 2 houses (Nos 29, 31) to right of centre with mirrored elevations; slightly advanced inner bays with bargeboarded gables over bipartite windows at ground and 1st floor, single window in gablehead; outer bays with entrance door and single window at 1st floor. Advanced house to outer right (No 33) with gabled and finialled bay to right with 2-storey canted window and half-piend lead roof, single window in gablehead; entrance door and single window at 1st floor to left bay. 2 houses (Nos 23 with basement accessed by bridge, 25) to left of centre mirrored elevations as Nos 29, 31 (except No 25 with 2-storey canted window with half piend lead roof to inner bay). No 21 to outer left with basement accessed by bridge; advanced gabled bay to left with entrance door and window at ground floor, single windows at 1st and 2nd floor, blind trefoil in pointed arch to gablehead; slender engaged tower with conical finialled roof in re-entrant angle to right and corbelled above ground floor, bipartite window at ground floor, tripartite window at 1st floor, 2nd floor window breaking eaves in gable.

SW ELEVATION: gabled bay to right with apex stack and single window in gablehead; tall stair window to centre with border glazing; shouldered wallhead stack to left; small dormer.

Timber sash and case windows with plate glass glazing. Black slate roof, lead flashings; 1 wallhead, 1 apex stack (see above), corniced mutual stacks, tall cans. Gablet skewputts. Ornamental cast-iron eaves brackets to Nos 25, 33.

INTERIOR: not seen 1992.

Low rubble boundary wall with flat bull-faced coping, cast-iron gates and railings (partly missing Nos 29-33).

Statement of Interest

MacGibbon designed the block in his capacity as architect to the Merchant Company, the principal developers of Merchiston and Colinton, a position he held from 1862 until 1901. The detailing of the terrace with its long and short bull-faced dressings shows similarities to the designs of J C Walker and James Gowans. No 23 subdivided to Nos 23 and 23B.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17808734

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

• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)