Description

Circa 1790; attic and rear extension of No 52 by Peter Hamilton, 1857; No 53 modernised internally in earlier 19th century. Mirrored pair of 3-storey basement and attic, 3-bay classical houses. Droved Craigleith sandstone ashlar with polished dressings. Channelled rustication at ground; cill course at 1st floor; simple moulded architraves; cornices at 1st floor. No 52 with cornices at 2nd floor and full attic storey; No 53 with single corniced slate-hung box dormer containing 3 windows, bipartite at centre. Inner bays with tripartite pilastered doorpieces and panelled doors; stylised capitals, fluted friezes with rosettes; 4-arched-pane fanlight to No 52, plate glass to No 53.

Coursed rubble 2-bay rear elevations. Massively extended from left bay of No 52; Venetian window at 1st floor to right; attic windows breaking eaves. No 53 with projecting right bay, tripartite window to left bay at ground and 1st floors; former doorway to right at ground, with plat oversailing basement.

Timber sash and case windows; plate glass to No 52, 12-pane to No 53. Ashlar coped mutual skews (lead covered at centre); dressed stone mutual stacks (reduced at centre); grey slates.

INTERIOR: No 52 massively rebuilt in Jacobethan taste; retains original stair with decorative cast-iron banisters.

No 53 with tripartite screen to inner hall; longitudinal central stair to left with alternate decorative cast-iron banisters; apsidal-ended former Dining Room with full-height recess, panelled dado and black slate chimneypiece. Plain black slate chimneypiece to rear right room, with tripartite window. At 1st floor, former Drawing Room with enriched ceiling (wheat ears in oval), panelled dado, and 19th century plaster panelled walls, rich cornice, and white marble chimneypiece with egg and dart cornice and brass grate in tiled insert with decorative Islamic tiles; pair of double doors, corniced with clasping pilasters; right pair leads to former Rear Drawing Room with cornice en suite and corresponding doorpiece, fluted Cornithian screen and white marble chimneypiece with brass enriched register grate. Upper floors considerably altered; timber stair to attic floor, which has landing opening onto stair with cast-iron banisters. Splayed tunnel to stairlight, enriched with trailing foliage.

RAILINGS: cast-iron spearhead railings.

Statement of Interest

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; Queen Street was built to take advantage of the northern views, and has survived remarkably unaltered to this day.

No 52 was the home of Sir James Young Simpson from 1845-70. No 53 was for a time the home of Christopher North.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17576721

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

• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)