Description

John Chesser, later 19th century. Pair of 3-storey with basement, 2-bay plain classical houses with piend-roofed canted bays. Polished, coursed, sandstone ashlar, droved at basement. Basement at No 5 rendered and slightly advanced; base course to No 4; cill course to 1st and 2nd floors; recessed panels above lights to canted bay at ground and 1st floors; corniced doorpiece comprising abbreviated pilasters flanking margin-framed doorway; margins to 1st floor window above; dentilled cornice; skews.

W (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: panelled timber door and fanlight, flanked on left by small window, beneath entrance platt to bay to left at basement of each house; light to centre of canted bay at right of each house; panelled timber door with rectangular fanlight to doorpiece at bay to left at ground; single window at floors above; light to each face of canted bay at right, all floors.

2-pane timber sash and case windows, diminishing in height from ground to 2nd floors. Grey slate roof; coped gablehead and mutual stacks, set to rear, with tall cans; cast-iron rainwater goods.

RAILINGS: fleur-de-lys iron railings to oversailing entrance platt and, set in coping, to street.

Statement of Interest

Part of New Town A-Group. Seemingly the work of John Chesser, although the street as a whole was originally conceived as the southern entrance to Grosvenor and Lansdowne Crescents, the overall scheme of which was devised by Robert Matheson. It is therefore likely these buildings were executed some time after Matheson's 12-21 Lansdowne Crescent of 1865, and the quality of the stone is somewhat inferior to that used in the latter and, indeed, to that of No 9 Rosebery Street. Matheson was the Surveyor of Works in Scotland and had purchased the West Coates estate in 1860 as an investment. Chesser was the Superintendent of Works to Heriot's Trust.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q56632162

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

• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2