Description

Earlier - mid 19th century. 2-storey symmetrical 3-bay rectangular- plan classical villa. Cream sandstone polished ashlar, heavily rusticated at ground, rubble to sides and rear. Base course; dividing band course; cornice; blocking course; architraves and cornices to 1st floor windows.

S (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: entrance doorcase with fluted Greek Doric columns supporting banded entablature with modillioned cornice; 4-panelled timber door, plate glass fanlight; decorative ironwork balcony above doorcase; single window to 1st floor above and to both floors of flanking bays. Single storey wings adjoining to E and W: 2-pane window and pedestrian gateway to W wing.

12-pane timber sash and case windows. Grey slate piended roof; corniced wallhead stacks.

INTERIOR: not seen 1996.

BOUNDARY WALL: low coped boundary wall to street with bootscraper and evidence of railings.

Statement of Interest

Dr Benjamin Bell of Hunthill, an eminent Edinburgh surgeon and farmer, speculated on the potential for development in 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, the houses possibly being built speculatively by one builder or building company. 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 Q17793260

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

• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  For the Record