The Villas Building, The Royal Observatory, Observatory Road, Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Edinburgh

Description

W W Robertson of HM Office of Works, 1892-94. Pair of two storey, 4-bay, symmetrical, gabled and semi-detached former villas (converted to offices), with Greek and Italian detailing, set on ground sloping down slightly to the east and within the larger walled compound of the Edinburgh Royal Observatory on Blackford Hill. In accordance with Section 1 (4A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 the following are excluded from the listing: the flat and pitched roof later 20th century additions to west elevation.

They are built in coursed sandstone rubble with smooth sandstone quoins, window dressings and moulded window cills. There are deep decorative timber bracketed eaves and carved timber panel details with finials to the gable apexes. There are paired canted bay windows at the ground floor of the south elevation with carved stone balustrading forming small balconies above at the first floor level.

The villas have console bracketed door canopies linked by a first floor cill course to the north (entrance) elevation with timber panelled bi-fold entrance doors. There are corniced ridge stacks, the rainwater goods are cast iron with decorative hoppers and star shaped detail support downpipe brackets. The buildings have timber sash and case windows.

The interiors were seen in 2015 and the layout remains largely as it was designed in the late 19th century. Later alterations have linked the two buildings internally at both levels and they now form a suite of small room office accommodation. There are plain turned timber bannisters to the staircases, timber panelling to the bay windows and some simple dentil cornicing to the principal rooms. The panelled timber doors to the entrance lobbies have a margined glazing pattern.

Statement of Interest

The pair of former villas was designed in 1892-4 for the new Royal Observatory on the Blackford Hill site. The Edinburgh Royal Observatory site was designed and built from 1892-4 as an outstanding and unique group of buildings within a walled compound forming the new Royal Observatory on Blackford Hill. The main observatory building was designed as a highly detailed bespoke design for a nationally important scientific facility and the site continues to be in the same use. The Villas Building complements the main observatory and other associated buildings and is accordingly highly detailed and constructed of high quality materials.

The Royal Observatory and its associated complex of buildings was built on Blackford Hill in Edinburgh from 1892-94. The complex first appears on the 2nd Edition Ordnance Survey Map (surveyed 1894, published 1897). The new observatory was built following a donation of astronomical instruments and literature to the city of Edinburgh from the 26th Earl of Crawford from his private observatory on the family's estate at Dunecht, Aberdeenshire. Since 1822 the Edinburgh Royal Observatory had been housed in the Observatory Building on Calton Hill however by 1888 its efficiency was affected by inadequate buildings, outmoded instruments and by what had become an unsuitable site. In 1888, a Royal Commission recommended that the Edinburgh Observatory should cease to be a National Scottish Institution and that its buildings should be handed over to the University. It was this threat to the future of the Observatory that prompted the Earl of Crawford to offer his gift of the instruments and astronomical library from his personal estate on the condition that the Government build a new building on the Blackford Hill site and maintain it to ensure a future for the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh.

The 1892-94 construction was supervised by the new Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Ralph Copeland and, as well as the Observatory building, the site included the new residence for the Astronomer Royal, the two further paired houses for staff, the enclosing stone walls and a gate lodge and decorative gates.

The publicly funded site was designed to act as a public monument to astronomy as well as a state-of-the-art research centre for the time. The resulting brief for the architect W W Robertson (1845-1907) was to create a building to adequately house the technical instruments and library whilst also designing the group of buildings to a high level of detail and design quality befitting the buildings' status as a public monument for the city of Edinburgh. The carved stone Zodiacal designs to the main observatory building are finely detailed and the stone towers with their copper domes are both practical and highly decorative. The detailing to the astronomer's house and the paired villas are of correspondingly of high quality with fine detailing to the stonework and gabled barge boards. The design of the detailing on the paired villas also subtly references the buildings' relationship to astronomy in the detail of the decorative downpipe brackets which are in the shape of stars.

The Royal Observatory was built within a large walled enclosure and when first built consisted of the observatory, the astronomer's house, the paired villas and the gate lodge, boundary walls and gates. Further additions were added in 1967 to the west of the main observatory with subsequent and extensive late 20th century additions built to follow the line of the curved wall on the west site of the site. Further additions are currently under construction (2015) to the south of the site adjacent to the paired villas.

The architect Walter Wood Robertson (1845-1907) was born in Elie in Fife and studied architecture at Edinburgh College of Art. In his early career he spent time articled to the offices of both Peddie and Kinnear and Brown and Wardrop before spending some time working in London. Robertson is best remembered for his large Post Office commissions at Perth, Greenock and Dundee executed from 1897-1898, however the observatory site, completed a few years earlier, is also one of his most prominent commissions.

The flat and pitched roof later 20th century additions to the west elevation are not considered of special interest in listing terms at the time of the review (2015-6).

External Links

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