Description

Circa 1851. 2-storey symmetrical 6-bay rectangular-plan classical pair of houses. Polished sandstone ashlar, channelled at ground; stugged masonry to sides and rear. Base course; cornice; blocking course; architraved windows to 1st floor.

S (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: doorcases in bays to outer left and right with fluted Greek Doric columns supporting entablature; pilasters behind; timber panelled doors; geometric glazing pattern to fanlights; single windows above and to both floors of intermediate bays. Adjoining single storey wings to E and W, the latter adapted to garage use.

12-paned timber sash and case windows. Grey slate piended roof with corniced wallhead and mutual stacks.

INTERIOR: not seen 1996.

BOUNDARY WALLS: low coped boundary wall with remains of railings to street, bootscraper for No 6; coped rubble mutual boundary wall with

No 4; low coped mutual boundary wall with No 10.

Statement of Interest

Built speculatively by the Edinburgh builders J W and A G Fowler and sold to Mr Thomas Cooper, a merchant and butter factor. Dr Benjamin Bell of Hunthill, an eminent Edinburgh surgeon and farmer, had earlier identified the potential for development of the lands of Newington. In 1806, aware of the demand for countrified dwellings near the city, he advertised his intention to sell 58 plots of land within his 8.5 acres. On his death in the same year his son George Bell, also a surgeon, inherited the land and, in 1825, commissioned James Gillespie Graham to design a plan for new streets within the grounds of Newington House, bounded by the back garden walls of Minto Street, Salisbury Road, East Mayfield and Dalkeith Road. Feus were offered for sale and Blacket Place began to take shape, other houses possibly being built speculatively in the manner of No 8. Security was an important feature of the development, with Gothic gates, the octagonal piers of which survive, locked at night and single storey lodges at the entrances from Minto Street and Dalkeith Road.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17793187

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

• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)