Description

Earlier 19th century, before 1833. 2-storey symmetrical 6-bay rectangular-plan pair of classical houses. Polished sandstone ashlar, rubble to sides and rear. Base course; dividing band course; cornice and blocking course; windows architraved, 1st floor windows corniced.

S (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: 2 central bays advanced; double doorcase with fluted Greek Doric columns; 4-panelled timber doors with 2 glass panels; fanlights with rectilinear glazing pattern above each; single windows to 1st floor above and to both floors of other bays. Adjoining single storey wall to E contains pedestrian doorway; to W, single storey wing linking with No 26 contains pair of garage doors.

12-paned timber sash and case windows. Grey slate piended roof with corniced mutual and wallhead stacks.

INTERIOR: not seen 1996.

BOUNDARY WALLS: portions of low coped original boundary wall to street survive; bootscraper; coped mutual boundary wall with No 26.

Statement of Interest

One of the first houses to be built in Blacket Place. Dr Benjamin Bell of Hunthill, an eminent Edinburgh surgeon and farmer, had 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 Q17793283

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

• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)