Description

Robert Wilson, 1893. 3-storey T-plan Renaissance school. Squared and snecked red sandstone rubble; red sandstone ashlar dressings. Advanced base course; cill courses to upper floors; skews and skewputts; strip quoins; mullions and transoms to windows; white ogee-roofed cupola.

SE (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: symmetrical 2-3-3-3-2 grouping of bays; advanced 2-storey gabled central section; tripartite windows, mullioned and transomed, to centre of ground; transomed windows flanking; 'ROSEBURN SCHOOL' in relief between 2 storeys; mullioned tripartite window to centre of upper floor, surmounted by cornice and semicircular moulding with tympanum inscribed 'AD 1893'; single windows flanking; blind arrow-slit to gable; ball finials to skewputts; recessed flanking sections with single windows (transomed at ground) to both floors of return; transomed and mullioned bipartite windows to centre of ground, flanked by transomed windows; corniced, gable-headed, mullioned bipartite breaking eaves at centre of upper floor; blind arrow-slit to gable; single windows to flanking bays; ball finials to skewputts; recessed gabled 3-storey flanking sections with, to inner bays at ground, recessed round-headed doorways surmounted by corniced decorative panels marked, at left and right sides respectively, 'GIRLS' and 'BOYS'; panelled timber doors flanked to outer sides by mullioned bipartite windows; mullioned tripartites to both upper floors.

NE ELEVATION: advanced section to left with advanced corniced bay to right at ground with tripartite mullioned window; single window to left; 3 windows to upper storey; shouldered wallhead stack; panelled timber door to ground of gabled return, surmounted by 2 small mullioned windows, cornice above; tall window flanking to right; tripartite window to uppermost storey; chamfered window to re-entrant angle; recessed 3-bay section to right; mullioned bipartite window to ground at left, and to floor above; single window to right of chamfered window above; bipartite window to top floor, with cornice and balustrade above, breaking eaves; transomed, mullioned bipartite windows to bays to right at ground; mullioned bipartite windows to floor above, flanked by pilasters; gable pierced by round window breaking eaves to central bay; cornice and balustrade breaking eaves to bay at right.

NW (REAR) ELEVATION: 3-storey; advanced 3-bay section to left; mullioned bipartite window flanked by single windows to ground; mullioned and transomed window to 1st floor, flanked by transomed windows; mullioned bipartite window flanked by single windows to 2nd floor; recessed 4-bay section to right; single windows to ground; tripartite mullioned and transomed windows to 1st floor, flanked by transomed windows; mullioned tripartite window to centre of 2nd floor, breaking eaves in gable; single windows to flanking bays; panelled timber door with tripartite fanlight to left of ground of return; single windows to 2 bays to right; tall transomed window to right of 1st floor; single window to right of 1st floor; recessed gabled section to right with chamfered window in re-entrant angle; panelled timber door surmounted by 2 small mullioned windows to ground of gabled recessed section to outer right, flanked on left by tall single window; single window to left of floor above; mullioned tripartite window to 2nd floor.

SW ELEVATION: not seen 2001.

Variety of multi-paned timber sash and case windows. Green Tilberthwaite slates; gablehead sandstone ashlar stacks to side and rear, some corniced, with moulded cylindrical terracotta cans; corniced base, dentilled cornice and flagpole to cupola behind central gable; painted cast-iron rainwater goods.

JANITOR'S HOUSE: 2-storey, rectangular-plan house. Squared and snecked red sandstone rubble; red sandstone ashlar dressings; strip quoins; mullions and transoms to windows; coped skews with ball finials to front elevation.

Tripartite windows to ground of gabled front elevation; bipartite windows to floor above, surmounted by cornice and round-headed moulding enclosing plain tympanum. Lean-to entrance porch with flanking window to right at ground of (right-hand) side elevation; round-headed skew with skew-putts to window to left of upper floor breaking eaves; flanking slit window; irregular distribution of windows to rear; shouldered sandstone ashlar wallhead stack to (left-hand) side, with cylindrical terrracota cans; modern PVCu glazing; slate roof; painted cast-iron rainwater goods.

BOUNDARY WALLS, GATES, GATEPIERS AND RAILINGS: coping stones with modern railings to street; wrought-iron gates with decorative finials; corniced gatepiers with ball finials.

Statement of Interest

Roseburn Street Primary School was one of the many Board Schools built in Edinburgh following the 1872 Education Act. Robert Wilson was the architect to the Edinburgh School Board and thus responsible for most of their schools including: Dalry Primary School (1880), South Bridge Primary School (1885), Sciennes Primary School (1889), Montpelier Bruntsfield Primary School (1894) and Kingsland Primary School, Peebles (1900).

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17798730

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

• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)