Description

Probably Robert Thornton Shiells, circa 1872. 4-storey, 3-bay Scots Baronial tenement block with shops at ground. Bipartite windows in outer bays at 1st and 2nd floors; paired windows to centre. Stepped string course to attic floor; single window to right, bipartite to right at 3rd floor with dormer heads breaking eaves; finialled crowstepped gablet to paired windows at centre with wallhead stack adjoining to right. Squared and snecked bull-faced sandstone with polished dressings, painted to ground. Pilastered shops with continuous cornice and fascia at ground floor; modern timber panelled door to flats with fanlight to centre. Coursed stugged sandstone with raised and polished dressings. Stop-chamfered, tabbed surrounds to windows.

4 and 2-pane glazing patterns in timber sash and case windows. Grey slates on double pitched roofs. Stone skews. Corniced wallhead stack with circular cans. Cast iron rainwater goods.

Statement of Interest

A prominently sited tenement block with good stone detailing in distinctive Scots Baronial style forming a strong visual group with the neighbouring buildings on Teviot Place. The tenement is of similar style and construction to neighbouring buildings in the street by the architect Robert Thornton Shiells (1833-1902) and may be by his hand.

Robert Thornton Shiells (1833-1902) was apprenticed to David Bryce before setting up his own practice in 1862. The tenements are some of his earlier works. He designed the Tron Free Church in 1877 and from then on designed a succession of fine quality of Romanesque Churches.

The planned street triangle of Forrest Road, Bristo Place and Teviot Row was conceived as part of Thomas Hamilton's (1784-1858) vision for the new Southern Approach Road linking Princes Street to George Square and the Meadows (via the Mound, Bank Street and a the new George IV Bridge). The City Improvement Act brought in by Lord Provost Chambers in 1867 was to implement better housing standards and to replace the medieval slum areas in Edinburgh's Old Town. The groups of Baronial style tenement blocks on Forest Road and Teviot Place were built as a direct result of this development phase.

The buildings were constructed as part of the Forrest Road, Teviot Place and Bristo Place development concurrent with the building of the New Medical School and the McEwan Hall in the later 19th century. The former Royal Infirmary was built around the same time as the redevelopment of Teviot Place so some of the shops on Teviot Place traded in medical equipment, books and clothing for the hospital and medical staff. The tradition is ongoing with some premises continuing to trade medical learning products (2011).

(List description updated at re-survey 2011-12)

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77776490

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

• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)