Description

Robert Thornton Shiells, 1872. 4-storey, 3-bay Scots Baronial tenement block with shops at ground. Squared and snecked stugged sandstone with polished dressings, painted to ground. Pilastraded shops with continuous cornice and fascia to ground floor; timber panelled door with plate glass fanlight to flats at centre. Stop-chamfered, tabbed surrounds to windows above; bipartite windows at 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors to right. Stepped string course to attic floor; pedimented dormer heads breaking eaves with shouldered wallhead stack between left and centre bays.

Plate glass in timber sash and case windows. Grey slates on double pitched roofs. Crowstepped stone skews. Corniced wallhead and end stacks 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.

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.

Statutory address updated (2015). Previously listed as '11-14 (inclusive nos) Teviot Place'.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77776500

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

• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)