Description

Circa 1780. Double tenement block with near-symmetrical 4-storey and attic, 11-bay elevation to Leith Street. Droved ashlar with polished cills (some painted polished ashlar at ground floor), rubble (some coursed) to rear. Modern timber shopfronts to ground floor. Dividing band between ground and 1st floor (to left only); 1st floor cill band (to left); eaves cornice; blocking course. Regular fenestration.

NW (LEITH STREET) ELEVATION: timber-panelled door with semicircular fanlight in round arched opening to centre. Flanking shopfronts left and right. To roof above; pitched-roof dormers at 1st, 2nd, 5th, 7th 10th and 11th bays; internal dormers at 3rd and 9th bays.

SE (REAR) ELEVATION: 7-storey elevation with 2 nepus gables and dormerheaded windows breaking eaves. Irregular fenestration with predominantly droved margins, many later alterations and additions.

GLAZING etc: modern plate glass in timber frames to ground floor; 12-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows to upper floors and dormers. Dormers have timber fascias; grey slate haffits and roofs. Mansard roof (see notes), grey slate, stone skews and skewputts. To left and right, stone and brick gablehead stacks with circular cans; central pair of brick ridge stacks with circular cans, connected by stone parapet.

Statement of Interest

Part of an 'A' Group with Nos 6-20 Waterloo Place, Nos 1-29 Waterloo Place, Waverleygate, Regent Bridge, Register House, Balmoral Hotel and 5-43 Leith Street.

The tenements that now remain on Leith Street were built as upmarket flats on land feued by the magistrates to speculative builders from 1780 onwards. 17-25 (Odd Numbers) Leith Street was the first of these tenement blocks to be built. The mansard roof is possibly a later addition. This building is important as an early example of speculative tenement design in the New Town, for their continuity of frontage with 1-9 Waterloo Place, and also for their function providing a screen for the rear elevation of Waterloo Place. In 1979-80 the buildings were renovated by Bamber, Gray and Partners.

The west side of Leith Street (demolished in 1965 to make way for the St James Centre) was known as Leith Street Terrace, and featured a pedestrian walkway/ terrace at first storey level, providing access to an upper tier of shops. The basis of the scheme was a design by Robert Adam in 1786; that which was built was a simplified version of Adam's designs (amended possibly by James Salisbury).

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17792611

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

• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)