Description

Robert Thornton Shiells, 1872. 4-storey, 4-bay Scots Baronial tenement block with shops at ground. Squared and snecked stugged sandstone with polished dressings, painted at ground. Pilastraded shops with continuous cornice and fascia at ground floor; timber panelled door with plate glass fanlight to flats at centre. Stop-chamfered, tabbed surrounds to windows; bipartite windows at 1st and 2nd floors to outer right and left. Stepped string course to 3rd floor; engaged tourelle with pepper-pot roof and weathervane to outer right. Finialled, pedimented dormerheaded windows to 2 centre bays and finialled gableheaded bipartite to outer left breaking eaves.

Plate glass and 4-pane glazing pattern in timber sash and case windows. Grey slates on double pitched roofs. Crowstepped skews. Corniced end and ridge stack extending to eaves with circular cans.

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.

Robert Thornton Shiells 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).

Statutory address updated (2015). Previously listed as '17 and 18 Teviot Place'.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77776504

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.

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