Description

Mill lane block, Peter Hamilton, dated 1850, heightened 1894; corner block with King Street, James Simpson, 1873-5, additions 1888-9; classical King Street Jubilee wing, W N Thomson, dated 1897; King Street nurses? home, W N Thomson, dated 1900, Scottish 17th century style, extended James Johnston, 1939-41; Taylor Gardens war memorial block, George Simpson, 1923-7. Hospital complex of 2- and 3-storey buildings of various dates and styles. Mostly cream sandstone ashlar, nurses? home and extension harled with red sandstone dressings.

MILL LANE BLOCK: 3-storey (heightened 1894); 5-bay. Band course above ground and 1st floors; band cill course at 2nd floor; eaves cornice and blocking course. Regular fenestration with bipartite windows to centre bay; pedimented porte-cochere with paired columns to centre (now passed under by modern infill). Plate glass, timber sash and case windows. Corniced wallhead and corner stacks.

KING STREET CORNER BLOCK: 3-storey and basement; 6 x 3 bays. Band course above ground floor; string course above 1st floor; 1st and 2nd floors with band cill courses and dividing cornice; eaves cornice and tall ashlar parapet with panelled corner dies and prominent wallhead stacks to E. Regular fenestration; 2nd floor (1888-9) with 2 centre bays to N framed by pilasters, curved French roof with decorative iron brattishing and 2 bull?s-eye dormers with elaborately carved surrounds above. 12-pane timber, sash and case windows (some blocked). Fine railings (see below).

KING STREET JUBILEE WING: 3-storey; 15-bay (N part possibly raised from 2-storey), classically-detailed. Band course above ground and 1st floor; band cill course at 1st and 2nd floor; eaves cornice (dentilled to S). 1st, 6th/7th and 10th bays from left advanced and breaking eaves in pediments (semicircular broken by pinnacle finial, segmental and standard respectively); regular fenestration. 1st bay with parapeted 2-storey canted window with transom lights and decorative plaque commemorating Queen Victoria?s diamond jubilee as apron to 1st floor window, keystoned round-arched window at 2nd floor, swagged blind roundels above. 6th bay with paired windows to each floor, commemorative plaque above 1st floor, segmental-arched pediment.

10th bay with small later porch, round-arched windows above. Small-pane glazing in sash and case windows, mostly with additional pivoted, small-pane upper panels.

NURSES? HOME: 2-storey with 1st floor breaking eaves, 7-bay; 17th century Scottish details. Harled with ashlar dressings and base course. Ashlar doorway with roll-moulded surround and 2 windows flanking to penultimate bay to right, elaborately carved heraldic dated panel and bipartite dormer with semicircular carved pediment above. Broad bays with crowstepped gables and canted windows at ground floor flanking. Regular fenestration to remaining bays with finialled dormer windows with scroll-carved ornament to coping, breaking eaves. Plain 4-storey 9-bay extension (1939-41) to right, en suite materials, and bell-cast piended roof, with doorway flanked by canted windows and carved panels inscribed 'Prudence' and 'Fortitude' above 1st floor windows of centre bays. Small-pane timber sash and case windows. Red tiled roofs. Coped sandstone ashlar stacks.

TAYLOR GARDENS BLOCK: built as war memorial; 2-storey; symmetrical 17-bay; with Tudorbethan details. Ashlar construction; stone transoms to principal elevation, some mullions. 3 advanced centre bays with ashlar mullioned and transomed windows divided by broad pilasters mounted with sculpted crests, pierced parapet with sculpted panel to centre bay, doorway off-centre to left; aprons of 1st floor windows with commemorative inscriptions relating to WWI. 2 gabled bays flanking with bipartite windows and carved panels to gableheads. Outer bays with regular fenestration and tall ashlar parapets. Gable elevations with apex stacks rising from carved, corbelled panels. Plate glass and 2-pane, modern replacements windows. Decorative gates and railings (see below).

INTERIOR: not seen 1993.

STALK: red engineering brick, tapering circular section shalk with moulded neck and steel tie-rings, sited by King Street corner block, rising from red brick and harled, tall single storey service blocks.

GATES AND RAILINGS: decorative wrought- and cast-iron railings to Taylor Gardens, and pedestrian and vehicular gates. Decorative spearhead railings to King Street corner block.

Statement of Interest

Now partly disused. Established about 1850 through the amalgamation of the casualty hospital of 1837 and the Dispensary founded in 1815 by the Edinburgh and Leith Humane society. The hospital was transferred to the NHS in 1948. In 1886, the hospital granted Dr Sophia Jex Blake permission to have her female medical students attend the hospital for clinical instruction. Brass plaques name the donor of each hospital bed. The Nurses? Home bears strong similarities to blocks at the Western General Hospital, EDINBURGH, by R M Cameron, 1912.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17813110

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

• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide