Minto House, 18-20 Chambers Street, Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Edinburgh

Entry Name: Minto House, 18-20 Chambers Street, Edinburgh

Listing Name: University of Edinburgh, Minto House, 18, 20 and 22 Chambers Street, Including Railings, Edinburgh

Listing Date: 29 April 1977

Last Amended: 17 July 2015

Category: B

Source: Historic Scotland

Source ID: 405214

Historic Scotland Designation Reference: LB27997

Building Class: Cultural

Also known as: 18-20 Chambers Street

ID on this website: 200405214

Location: Edinburgh

County: Edinburgh

Town: Edinburgh

Electoral Ward: City Centre

Traditional County: Midlothian

Tagged with: University building

Description

R Thornton Sheills, 1876-8 (to E) and Peter L Henderson, 1878 (to W). University department comprising 2 previously separate buildings, currently internally linked (2007) and incorporating maltings section of former brewery to NW.

To W (Nos 18 and 20): 2-storey, basement and mansard attic, 6-bay French Renaissance style former medical school with slightly advanced entrance bay to far right. Ashlar, channelled to ground. Band course, dentilled cornice. Recessed segmental-arched window openings to ground; deep consoled cornice at 3rd bay. Keystoned, segmental-arched window openings to 1st storey, with consoled cornices and balustraded aprons. To far right, Corinthian columns support projecting segmental-headed porch with recessed 2-leaf timber panelled entrance door. Central pedimented window above with flanking pilasters.

4-storey 1971 link to former maltings to NW. 4-storey, rectangular-plan former maltings building with pyramidal-roofed former kiln to E. Snecked, coursed, rubble. Small, square window openings.

To E (No 22): 2-storey and basement, symmetrical 3-bay Italian Romanesque former Free Church in highly decorative style with 3-storey and attic French pavilion roofed entrance tower to right. Ashlar, with channelled pilasters to ground. String course, cornice, arcaded corbel course, blocking course. 2- and 3-light round-arched windows with Corinthian-columned mullions, recessed in moulded segmental arches, with blind roundels to tympana. Pediment to centre. Entrance tower to right with wide round-arched doorway with Corinthian colonettes.

Predominantly plate glass timber sash and case windows to W; vertical, multi-pane, non-traditional glazing to E. Grey slates. Decorative brattishing to square-plan roofs above entrance bays.

INTERIOR: (seen 2007). Largely altered, but with some original features. Open-well staircase with timber barley-sugar twist balusters and timber handrail and newels. Timber and glass cupola. One room to No 22 with coved ceiling supported by cast-iron Corinthian columns. Some open timbers to former maltings.

RAILINGS: to Chambers Street. Spear-headed cast-iron railings with integral gate.

Statement of Interest

These two stylistically different buildings are an important part of the streetscape of Chambers Street. They are now linked and form the Departments of Architecture and History of Art at the University of Edinburgh (2007). The building is an important part of the University's estate and is a significant element in the character of this part of the city.

The former church at No 22 was designed by Robert Thornton Sheills and is an especially well-detailed building with a Lombardic-influenced design which sets it apart from the more common Classical designed buildings of Edinburgh. The arcaded corbel course and the Corinthian mullions give it a particularly decorative street elevation. It was originally built as the Free Tron Church.

Robert Thornton Sheills (1833-1902) was an Edinburgh architect, apprenticed to the renowned David Bryce. He designed mainly private houses and other Free Churches in the Edinburgh area and was influenced by Italian style, especially latterly by the Lombardic tradition, as here.

Minto House, at Nos 18 and 20, was designed by Peter Henderson and was built as the extra-mural medical department for women. It is depicted on the 1893 Ordnance Survey Map as the Edinburgh School of Medicine.

Peter Henderson (1848-1912) was an Edinburgh based architect who was also an engineer. His output included a number of breweries in the area, as well as other, mostly public buildings.

The maltings to the rear was originally part of the Argyll Brewery site. It was converted for University use in 1972 by Ian Lindsay & Partners.

List description updated as part of the Edinburgh Holyrood Ward resurvey 2007-08.

Statutory address updated (2015). Previously listed as '18, 20 and 22 Chambers Street, University of Edinburgh, Minto House, including railings, (department of Architecture and History of Art)'.

External Links

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.