Description

Early 18th century, and Arthur George Sydney Mitchell and George Wilson, 1894. 3-storey, basement and attic (4 storeys to rear) plain 6-bay tenement (3 2-bay blocks) with later embellishments. Random rubble with ashlar margins (painted); cream harled additions to N. Plain gable to E.

S ELEVATION: regularly fenestrated; timber panelled doors with small-pane glazed fanlights in moulded, corniced surrounds in outer left and 2nd and 3rd bays from right; red painted steps supported on harled walls with decorative curved wrought-iron railings built out over basement area to doors at 1st floor level in 2nd and 3rd bays from right; cast-iron railings to basement area. 6 slate-hung piend-roofed dormers to attic. Carved name RAMSAY GARDEN to outer right.

N ELEVATION: 3 2-bay blocks, irregularly fenestrated, with gabled jettied attics; small-pane glazing carried into apex of gables. Glazed door to left block; pentice-roofed single-storey glazed extension with door to centre block; single-bay 2-storey oriel at 3rd and 4th floors to outer left; 2-bay 2-storey oriel in centre block; swept-roofed oriel at 3rd floor in 2nd bay from right. Block to right harled.

12-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows to 18th century building; predominantly small-pane glazing to 1894 additions. Grey slates. Corniced end stacks with circular cans.

Statement of Interest

The A group comprises Nos 1-3, Nos 4-10, Nos 11 and 12 and Nos 13-16 Ramsay Garden. The ground on which Ramsay Garden stands was acquired by the poet Allan Ramsay in 1733. On it he built an octagonal villa, Ramsay Lodge, completed circa 1734. The property was purchased by Professor Patrick Geddes from Lord Murray of Henderland, a descendant of Ramsay, in 1890. The complex which Geddes built, incorporating Ramsay Lodge and the plain 18th century tenement to the E (Nos 1-3 Ramsay Garden), and designed by S Henbest Capper and Sydney Mitchell and Wilson, was an extension of his University Hall, begun in 1883 at 2 Mound Place. As the article in the BUILDER suggests, Geddes' intention was to 'combine the advantages of collegiate life with the more practical needs and shorter purses of Scottish undergraduates.' Sydney Mitchell's plan of 1894 shows the subdivision of No 1 Ramsay Garden to 2 houses, with the addition of the stair and door at 1st floor level. The Ramsay Garden complex is important both architecturally and historically, and also has immense townscape significance, particularly the sky-line as viewed from Princes Street and the New Town.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17576791

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

• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)