Description

Earlier 19th century. Single storey 3-bay symmetrical rectangular-plan house in plain classical style, with recessed wings to E and W. Polished sandstone ashlar. Base course; eaves course; cornice; painted blocking course.

S (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: advanced central bay with 4-panelled timber door and plate glass fanlight; single windows recessed in flanking bays. Lower wings set back to outer left and right.

4-pane timber sash and case windows, 2-pane in wings. Grey slate roof; glazed cupola; coped and rendered gablehead stacks, octagonal corniced stack to E at rear.

INTERIOR: not seen 1996.

BOUNDARY WALLS: low coped boundary wall to street, linked to rendered former carriage entrance at E.

Statement of Interest

One of the earliest buildings in Blacket Place. Dr Benjamin Bell of Hunthill, an eminent Edinburgh surgeon and farmer, speculated on the potential for development in the lands of Newington. In 1806, aware of the demand for countrified dwellings near the city, he advertised his intention to sell 58 plots of land within his 8.5 acres. On his death in the same year his son George Bell, also a surgeon, inherited the land and, in 1825, commissioned James Gillespie Graham to design a plan for new streets within the grounds of Newington House, bounded by the back garden walls of Minto Street, Salisbury Road, East Mayfield and Dalkeith Road. Feus were offered for sale and Blacket Place began to take shape, the houses possibly being built speculatively by one builder or building company. Security was an important feature of the development, with Gothic gates, the octagonal piers of which survive, locked at night and single storey lodges at the entrances from Minto Street and Dalkeith Road.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17793161

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

• 
  For the Record
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  The Shredded Chef: 120 Recipes for Building Muscle, Getting Lean, and Staying Healthy
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)