Description

Robert Paterson, 1877. 2-storey with central tower, 3-bay Franco-Baronial L-plan municipal building with later additions and (internal) alterations. Bull-faced squared and snecked sandstone, polished dressings; brick to NE elevation. Base course, chamfered arrises, moulded cill course to 1st floor.

SW (HIGH STREET) ELEVATION: near-symmetrical; advanced bay to centre, buttressed at ground; broad entrance with flanking columns; moulded four-centred arch doorpiece. Corbelled and mullioned oriel window at 1st floor above, with cast-iron brattishing. Corbelled string course above 1st floor. Corbelled diminutive bartizans at eaves level of tower. Clock set within crow-stepped gable (also to NW and SE elevations of tower). Gabled and louvered dormers to tower and intricate cast-iron cage and weather vane at apex. Tripartite window to ground of flanking bays, hoodmoulds with semi-circular central section; tripartite windows at 1st floor above; finely carved lintel, corbelled to crow-stepped gable with trefoil relief in gablehead. Foundation stone to SE angle, carved: " Erected 1878 Thomas Wood Esq. Provost"; corbelled bartizan above at eaves.

Timber cases to stone mullioned windows. Grey slate roof of complex pattern, M-gable with various other additions to rear. Rendered and coped stack to NW; ashlar and coped polygonal wallhead stack to SE.

INTERIOR: panelled ceiling and walls to 1st floor, centre. Superintendent's room with panelled door, plaster cornice and panelled ingoes to window recess. False ceilings; most original features removed.

Statement of Interest

Designed as the Town Council Office. A flamboyant display of civic pride in a prominent High Street location.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Police Station, 118 Portobello High Street, Portobello, Edinburgh at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17811153

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

• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)