Description

Mid - later 19th century. 2-storey with basement symmetrical 4-bay rectangular-plan pair of classical houses. Polished sandstone ashlar, channelled at ground; stugged rubble to sides and rear. Base course; dividing band course; cornice; blocking course; architraved windows to 1st floor.

W (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: steps up to doorcases in bays to outer left and right with fluted Doric columns in front of pilasters supporting entablature; 6-panelled timber doors; plate glass fanlights; bipartite windows to 1st floor above; tripartite windows to both floors of intermediate bays; tripartite fenestration with decorative ironwork to basement. Single storey wing adjoining No 31 to right contains 2 pedestrian doorways; pedestrian doorway in single storey wing to No 27.

2-pane timber sash and case windows. Grey slate piended roof; variety of corniced and coped mutual and (paired) wallhead stacks.

INTERIOR: not seen 1996.

BOUNDARY WALLS: low coped boundary walls to street.

Statement of Interest

Dr Benjamin Bell of Hunthill, an eminent Edinburgh surgeon and farmer, speculated on the potential for development in the lands of Newington. In 1806, aware of the demand for countrified dwellings near the city, he advertised his intention to sell 58 plots of land within his 8.5 acres. On his death in the same year his son George Bell, also a surgeon, inherited the land and, in 1825, commissioned James Gillespie Graham to design a plan for new streets within the grounds of Newington House, bounded by the back garden walls of Minto Street, Salisbury Road, East Mayfield and Dalkeith Road. Feus were offered for sale and Blacket Place began to take shape, the houses possibly being built speculatively by one builder or building company. Security was an important feature of the development, with Gothic gates, the octagonal piers of which survive, locked at night and single storey lodges at the entrances from Minto Street and Dalkeith Road.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77772204

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

• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)