Description

Earlier 19th century, before 1833. 2-storey symmetrical 6-bay classical pair of houses. Polished sandstone ashlar, channelled at ground; rubble to sides and rear. Base course; dividing band course; cornice; blocking course; architraved windows to 1st floor.

NW (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: 2 central bays advanced; paired doorcases with fluted Doric columns and pilasters behind outer columns; 4-panelled timber door (that to No 32 has 2 glass panels); plate glass fanlights; single windows to 1st floor above and to both floors of other bays. Single storey wing to NE contains garage door; single storey wing linking to No 34 contains 2 pedestrian doorways.

12-pane sash and case windows to No 30; 2-pane sash and case windows to No 32. Grey slate piended roof. Coped mutual and wallhead stacks.

INTERIOR: not seen 1996.

BOUNDARY WALLS: low coped boundary walls, mutual and to street.

Statement of Interest

One of the earliest buildings in Blacket Place. It was Dr Benjamin Bell of Hunthill, an eminent Edinburgh surgeon and farmer, who had speculated on the potential for development in the lands of Newington. In 1806, aware of the demand for countrified dwellings near the city, he had 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, had inherited the land. He commissioned James Gillespie Graham in 1825 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, several of the houses probably 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 Q17793341

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

• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)