Description

Robert Adam, 1791; design amended by Robert Reid, 1810; later attics. Symmetrical 3-storey basement and attic 19-bay neo-classical palace block formerly consisting of 7 houses; 1 of pair flanking entry to George Street. Polished cream sandstone ashlar. Rock-faced basement; V-jointed rustication at ground floor; cill course to 1st and 2nd floors; cornice. Round-headed tripartite doorways, with radiating glazing.

W (CHARLOTTE SQUARE) ELEVATION: 5-bay centrepiece, arcaded at ground with door at centre, and round-headed windows in round-arched recesses; outer bays slightly projecting at ground with giant Ionic columns to upper floors with balustrades between column bases; entablature and cornice; at 1st floor, centre window with consoled pediment, flanking windows corniced. 3-bay end pavilions with tripartite windows to centre at ground and 1st floors, latter with columns, blind balustrade and shallow blind arch; pair of festooned panels at 1st floor; doorways to inner bays. Bay adjoining S pavilion with Ionic columned porch added by John Watherston & Son, 1902. Cills lowered at 1st floor of Nos 41 and 45, with decorative cast-iron balconies to latter. Pyramidal roofs to pavilions, variety of dormers and mansards to houses between.

N (GEORGE STREET) ELEVATION: 3-bay, with modern ashlar-faced shopfront built out at ground. Pediment (facing that opposite) and large timber canted window to right, blind windows to left.

Coursed rubble gable end to N with windows at centre.

Timber 12-pane sash and case windows; 15-pane or plate glass to extended windows, 4-pane to centre house (No 43). Corniced ashlar stacks; grey slates.

INTERIOR: No 40 with grey and white marble chimneypieces, corniced doors; circular stairwell and domed cupola, with stove niche at ground. No 41 with glazed timber screen and revolving door; the ground floor opened up with Ionic arcade and glazed timber partition. No 44 was designed by Robert Reid for himself, with unique interior. Unseen 1995.

RAILINGS, LAMP STANDARDS: cast-iron spearhead railings and original lamp standards.

Statement of Interest

The centrepieces were redesigned by Robert Reid, without Adam's large lunette windows, which relate awkwardly on the W side of the square with breaks between the houses. No 45 was lived in from 1898 to 1938 by Sir Robert Philip who campaigned against tuberculosis.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17567759

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

• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)