Description

James Hill, 1788-94. 3-storey, 4-bay classical former house and ground floor flat. Droved cream sandstone ashlar (painted black) with polished dressings. Smaller ground floor windows with cill course; eaves course. E bay slightly recessed with tripartite doorpiece with acanthus frieze and cornice; 2-leaf panelled doors (No 21). Roman Doric pilastered and corniced doorpiece (No 23) to centre of remaining bays, with panelled door; Orleans-Bourdon coat of arms above 1st floor window. Bipartite dormer to left.

Irregular coursed rubble gable formerly with 2 massive windows at 2nd floor, now much reduced in size.

3-bay rubble rear elevation; 2 right bays advanced and 3-storey, left bay 2-storey and basement with huge tripartite window at 2nd floor.

Timber sash and case windows; plate glass, 4-pane and 12-pane. Ashlar coped skews, stone stacks, rendered to W; grey slates.

INTERIOR: plain ground floor offices at No 23 with access to Hall of

No 21. No 21 with low square Hall divided by 19th century glazed timber screen; tiled floor, original cornice; large dog-leg stair ahead rises to 2nd floor; alternate decorative cast-iron banisters, mahogany handrail; full-width tripartite window to 1st landing and enormous similar tripartite window rising to ceiling at 2nd landing (both with considerable quantity of original glass). 1st floor landing with arches gives on to single bay room to SE with dado, plain chimneypiece and cornice; former 3-bay Drawing Room to W with panelled dado, shutters and doors, original ceiling rose and cornice, chimneypiece removed, pair of doors to inner wall with swagged frieze and cornices; large former Dining Room to NW (subdivided) with plaster panelled walls, panelled dado and shutters, similar overdoors, grey marble 19th century chimneypiece, and 2 large windows, E one with decorative etched glass to lower sash. At 2nd floor, apsidal-ended room to immediate S of stair with domed oval ceiling with original plaster enrichments (swags around rose) and plain moulded chimneypiece; short flight of steps to remainder of floor with 2 rooms to front with coved ceilings and plain chimneypieces; 2 full-height rooms to rear; further internal stair to attic.

Statement of Interest

James Hill was a mason who built the street with finance from Robert Belshes of Greenyeards. Owned by Lord Jeffrey from 1809-1850, and Professor James Lorimer from 1859-73. The grandsons of Louis Phillipe stayed here from 1859-60, thus the crest. It is one of the more interesting, and probably the grandest, house in the Rose Street/Thistle Street axes. Listed at Category A as a significant surviving part of the original fabric of Edinburgh?s New Town, one of the most important and best preserved examples of urban planning in Britain.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17574656

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

• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)