Description

Frank Worthington Simon, 1898 (restored 1989). 3-storey and attic 4-bay French Renaissance former boys' home (now flats). Hammer-dressed coursed sandstone with polished ashlar dressings. Tall arcaded ground floor (formerly shops); conical-roofed 3-storey tourelles corbelled out at 1st floor level from splayed corners. Mutuled eaves cornice; stone-mullioned and -transomed windows with long and short surrounds.

N (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: 2 centre bays wider, with semi-elliptical arches to ground floor and tripartite windows to 1st and 2nd floors. Outer bays narrower, with semicircular arches to ground floor and bipartite windows to 1st and 2nd floors. Wallhead stack to centre and aedicule at 1st floor level with mutuled curved pediment and finial (capitals and base left in block) enclosing tablet reading 'Restored by Fountainbridge Housing Association 1989.' Bipartite windows with curved finialled dormerheads to all attic bays. Timber panelled doors in moulded arched surrounds with consoled keyblocks (dated) on corners; 4-light stone-mullioned windows to 1st and 2nd stages of tourelles; bracketed windows with broken scrolled pediments breaking eaves; cornice passing across attic windows; finials to slated conical roofs.

E (THORNYBAUK) ELEVATION: 4-bay. Semicircular arch at ground floor in right bay; narrow windows off-set to left at 1st and 2nd floors. Bipartite windows at ground, 1st 2nd and 3rd floors in 2 left bays (gabled). Stair door in centre bay and 2 windows lighting stair above. Mutuled cornice between 2nd and 3rd floors in 2 right bays; balustered parapet above.

W (PONTON STREET) ELEVATION: 4-bay. Semicircular arch at ground floor in left bay; narrow windows off-set to right at 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors; dentilled cornice between 2nd and 3rd floors, wallhead chimney to left, balustered parapet to right. 3 right bays gabled; arched and rusticated opening (filled in, with window) in left bay, rusticated pilaster strip to right at ground. 3 small windows at 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors.

Windows on principal elevation small-pane leaded, those on the side elevations modern timber replacements. Graded grey slates (formerly roofed with Westmoreland slates). Cast-iron down pipes with decorative (dated) hoppers. Wallhead stacks with circular cans.

Statement of Interest

Originally the Edinburgh Industrial Brigade Home, renamed the Edinburgh Home for Working Lads in 1928. Dean of Guild plans show dormitories with communal lavatories and a bathroom on each floor, and a large playroom in the basement. The Home moved out in 1962, and closed down in 1977. The rear section of the building, built in red brick, was demolished in 1982.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17806088

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

• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings