Description

Circa 1800. Near-symmetrical double tenement with slightly advanced shopfronts to ground floor; 4-storey and attic, 7 bay elevation to Antigua Street. Droved ashlar (rubble to rear). Eaves cornice. Regular fenestration.

E (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: to centre (stair) bay, flush timber door with letterbox fanlight in opening with painted margins and cornice. To far left, modern shopfront with door at centre; to inner left, timber shopfront with ornamental cast iron grille to stallriser, classical details and modillioned corniced with console support; to right, much altered shopfront with modillioned cornice and console supports remaining. Single pedimented dormer to roof to far left; canted dormer to roof to far right.

W (REAR) ELEVATION: 6-bay elevation; 2 nepus gables; pitched roof dormer to roof to far left.

GLAZING etc: predominantly plate glass glazing in timber sash and case windows; modern glazing to ground floor; 12-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows to central stair bay; 4-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows to 3rd floor (excluding central bay). Timber fascia, grey slate haffits and roofs (pitched to left, piend to right) to dormers. 7 rooflights to front pitch. Pitched roof; grey slate; stone skews and skewputts. 1 corniced, droved ashlar ridge stack to far left; 2 corniced droved ashlar stacks to front pitch to centre;1 corniced rendered gablehead stack to each nepus gable; circular cans to all stacks.

Statement of Interest

This classically detailed tenement block is a good example of early 19th century high quality tenement design in Edinburgh. It also has streetscape and historical value as an element of the Gayfield estate development.

7- 10 Antigua Street forms part of the Gayfield Estate, so called because it stands on the former grounds of Gayfield House (East London Street; 1763-5, still extant; separately listed Category A). These lands were feued by the solicitor James Jollie from 1785. Building began on either side of the drive to the house; the building line on the SW of Gayfield Square follows the line of the drive. These developments began to establish the form of Gayfield Square, which forms the heart of the estate. The gardens at the core of the square were preserved from development as early as the 1790s; Sasines record that '..the area of Gayfield Place [is] to remain an open space for all time coming.'

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17792460

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

• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings