Description

R Thornton Shiells and Thomson, 1880. Pair of 4-storey, 5-bay Jacobean style tenements at start of curving terrace. Squared and snecked sandstone with polished ashlar dressings. Base course; dividing band course above ground floor; cornices dividing windows at each floor; raised surrounds extended down to form aprons to each window (excluding ground floor); basket-arched windows; chamfered reveals; bracketted cills at ground.

W (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: each 5-bay block comprising : doorways at 2nd, 3rd, and 4th bays; panelled doors; plate glass fanlights; single windows flanking to right and left of 2nd and 4th bays respectively.

Full-height canted windows with shaped pediments, faceted conical roofs, and iron finials in bays to outer right. Identical bay to outer left of No 38. Full height advanced bay with tripartite windows, shaped pediment, French pavilion roof, and cast-iron brattishing to outer left of No 32.

Single windows in remaining bays; 4th floor windows breaking eaves in round-arched pediments at bays 2 and 4, and shaped pediments at central bays.

Predominantly plate glass sash and case windows, with 4-panes to main lights of canted windows. Grey slate roof; lead flashing; corniced mutual stack to nos 32-36; coped and rendered stacks elsewhere; moulded cans.

INTERIOR: not seen 1990.

Low boundary wall to street.

Statement of Interest

Forms continuous irregular terrace with Marchmont Crescent even nos 44-104. Nos 32-36 were built for the Marchmont Crescent Building Association.

The period between 1860 and 1900 saw significant residential expansion in the city of Edinburgh with construction of a number of residential tenement suburbs.

The tenement suburb of Marchmont developed between circa 1876 and 1914

following the feuing of the Warrender family estate (land south of the Meadows).

Marchmont's development can be viewed in two distinct phases, with the first phase, prior to 1900, largely following the plan laid out by David Bryce of 1869. This phase, which saw the construction of streets in the north and east of the site, is characterised by the individual nature of the work by builders and architects who frequently developed only one or two feus at a time. These tenements were built predominantly in the baronial style following guidelines set down in the 1869 feu charter. In the second phase, after 1900, the baronial style recedes and elevations become more uniform.

Architects Robert Thornton Shiells (1833-1902) and James M Thomson (circa 1850-1922) entered into partnership circa 1877 practising predominantly in Edinburgh. The practice designed two tenement blocks in Marchmont between 1878 and 1880.

Listed building record and statutory address updated (2015). Previously listed as '32-36 and 38-42 (even nos) Marchmont Crescent'.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17800325

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

• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)