Description

Earlier 19th century. 2-storey symmetrical 3-bay rectangular-plan classical villa. Polished ashlar, rusticated at ground; coursed rubble to sides and rear. Base course; dividing band course; cornice and blocking course; lugged architraves to 1st floor wondows.

S (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: doorcase with fluted Greek Doric columns in front of single pilasters forms base for Greek key pattern ironwork balcony to central 1st floor window; 4-panelled timber door with 3-pane fanlight; single window to first floor above and to both floors of flanking bays. Single storey corniced walls adjoining to E and W: 4-panelled door to E; square opening to W leads to piend-roofed stable converted to garage use, with 2-leafed planked door and square hatch above.

12-paned timber sash and case windows. Grey slate piended roof. Coped wallhead stacks.

INTERIOR: not seen 1996.

BOUNDARY WALL: to right of driveway is low coped wall with bollards; low coped boundary wall to street.

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 Q17793270

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

• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings