Description

Robert Wilson, 1900-1. 2-storey former school building with Queen Anne detailing, shaped gables and square-plan bellcote with columns supporting slated, swept roof and gilded cockerel weathervane. Coursed bull-faced sandstone with red sandstone dressings. Base course; eaves cornice. Long and short quoins; raised margins; tabbed surrounds. Built on sloping site, ground made up at N with coped, random coursed bull-faced sandstone retaining wall below playground level (iron railings over); windows to East Market Street containing series of offices and workshops.

E (NEW STREET) ELEVATION: asymmetrical; bays grouped 3:3:3. 3 bays to right: bipartite window in centre bay; gablet with apex stack and scrolled skewputts above; steps to 2-leaf timber panelled door in Gibbs surround with pulvinated frieze; small window above in corniced surround flanked by carved foliate scrolls. Stone-mullioned windows to centre bay; piend-roofed dormerhead with Venetian window breaking eaves above. Shaped dormerhead to centre window breaking eaves to left.

W (REAR) ELEVATION: mirrored (flat-coped dormerhead at right).

N (EAST MARKET STREET) ELEVATION: symmetrical, 9 bays. Slightly advanced gabled outer bays with Gibbs surrounds to 1st floor windows and keyed oculi above. Recessed linking 5-bay range: slightly advanced centre bay with corniced, pilastered bipartite bay (carved angels to ground floor cornice, fluted pilasters to 1st floor) and bell-cast roof breaking eaves; tall mullioned and transomed windows to stair wells in flanking bays.

S ELEVATION: symmetrical. Shaped gables to outer bays (circular panels in gables) with off-set windows. Piend-roofed and shaped dormerheads breaking eaves in 3rd bays from left and right.

Timber sash and case 12-pane glazing. Grey slate pitched roofs. Stone skews with scrolled skewputts. Corniced apex stacks with circular cans. Cast-iron downpipes with decorative hoppers.

INTERIOR: glazed white tiled entrance vestibule; central galleried hall with continuous glazed rooflight; arch-braced and tie-beamed timber supports with carved scroll hammer braces. Former classrooms off ground floor and off parquet-floored gallery at 1st floor; plain iron railings with timber banister; stairwells at N with white glazed tiles to dado and plain ochre-coloured border.

BOUNDARY WALLS AND GATEPIERS: gatepiers to New Street entrance with platform copes and rusticated bands; later overthrow. Plain iron railings to coped sanstone boundary wall.

Statement of Interest

Built by Robert Wilson, architect for Edinburgh School Board, as North Canongate Infant School. The building became a school of building in 1943, offices in 1968 and the Canongate Venture, housing a variety of small businesses and workshops, in 1981. The central galleried hall remains virtually unchanged and is a good, typical example of Board School design of the period.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q56632100

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

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  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
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  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
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  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
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  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)