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Latitude: 55.9495 / 55°56'58"N
Longitude: -3.1938 / 3°11'37"W
OS Eastings: 325545
OS Northings: 673580
OS Grid: NT255735
Mapcode National: GBR 8NG.KS
Mapcode Global: WH6SL.XQ9F
Plus Code: 9C7RWRX4+QF
Entry Name: 491 Lawnmarket, Edinburgh
Listing Name: 491-495 (Odd Nos) Lawnmarket, and 3 and 5 James Court
Listing Date: 14 December 1970
Category: A
Source: Historic Scotland
Source ID: 368612
Historic Scotland Designation Reference: LB29234
Building Class: Cultural
ID on this website: 200368612
Circa 1795, with earlier wing to rear, remodelled S Henbest Capper, 1892. 5-storey and attic 5-bay tenement with shops to ground floor; narrow round-arched entrance to pend to centre (E Entry to James Court) with steep turnpike stair to flats; long narrow asymmetrical block to rear at NW. Ashlar (painted to ground); rubble to rear, harl to NW wing. Regularly fenestrated. Eaves course. Projecting cills. 2 piend-roofed slated timber dormers to attic.
REAR WING: irregular stair tower to N, curved to ground floor, jettied above. Timber-framed access balconies to E (see Notes). Irregular elevation to W with asymmetrically placed small windows and broad wallhead stacks.
Predominantly 12-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows. Grey slates. Tall stacks (harled to rear) with circular cans.
In 1723-7 James Brownhill (following the precedent of Robert Mylne at Milne's Court) demolished closes running N/S to form a square court, building a tall double tenement to the N (all but the E section of which was destroyed in a fire in 1857), but leaving the old buildings facing the Lawnmarket. Those to the W of Gladstone's Land were replaced circa 1795. The NW wing (3 and 5 James Court) was remodelled for Patrick Geddes by Henbest Capper in 1892.
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