Description

Later 19th century, attributed to Peddie and Kinnear, Architects, 1859-61 (see Notes). Asymmetrical concave 3-storey and attic Scots Baronial building on truncated wedge-shaped site between Advocate's and Warriston's Closes. Squared and snecked lightly stugged ashlar with polished dressings (rubble to rear wings). Moulded string course to 1st floor; 2 bays to right to 2nd floor jettied on machicolated corbel table; moulded corbel table to attic floor. Chamfered surrounds to windows. Thistle-finialled crowstepped gable to right with carved panel over stone-mullioned and -transomed window. Gabled dormerheads with monograms (WC and RC) to 2 attic windows breaking eaves to left. String course and attic corbel table continued to crowstep-gabled 2-window bay to Warriston's Close.

4-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows. Grey slates.

Statement of Interest

A Group comprises 1-63 (Odd Nos) and 2-6 and 18-56 (Even Nos) Cockburn Street. Built to accommodate Chambers Printing and publishing offices in Advocate's Close. The initials WC and RC stand for William and Robert Chambers. Known briefly as Lord Cockburn Street, Cockburn Street was named after the doyen of conservationists, Lord Cockburn, who died in 1854. It was built by the High Street and Railway Station Access Company, under the Railway Station Acts of 1853 and 1860, to provide access to Waverley Station from the High Street. The serpentine curve of the street (anticipated in Thomas Hamilton's Victoria Street) gives a gradient of not more than 1:14; James Peddie and Henry J Wylie were the engineers. One of the aims of the design was to conceal the diagonal line of the street from Princes Street. A watercolour perspective drawing of the street by John Laing, published in THE BUILDER of 1860, shows how this was to be achieved. Stylistically, the intention was 'to preserve as far as possible the architectural style and antique character of the locality.' Peddie and Kinnear's Cockburn Street designs are an innovative application (much imitated later) of the Scots Baronial style, previously used by Burn and Bryce in country houses, to the urban situation, with shops and tenements enlivened by crowstepped gables, corbelling and turrets, linked by moulded string courses. No drawings survive for this block. Laing's presentation drawing shows a richer treatment, with spired circular angle tower. However, although not built until later, and without Peddie and Kinnear's characteristic PK monogram, the building reflects the Baronial treatment of the rest of Cockburn Street.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17811571

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

• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6