Description

Earlier 19th century, before 1833. 2-storey 5-bay rectangular-plan classical villa with recessed 2-storey wings projecting to rear. Polished sandstone ashlar, rusticated ground floor; rubble to sides and rear. Base course; dividing band course; cornice; blocking course; windows to 1st floor architraved (except bay).

SE (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: 2 central bays advanced; paired doorcases with Ionic columns support scored corniced entablature which forms balcony to 2 central bays of 1st floor; 4-panelled timber entrance doors (that to No 28 has 2 glass panels) with plate glass fanlights; single windows to 1st floor above and to both floors of bays to right; 20th century bay window projects to left of central bays. One-storey wings linking with Nos 24 and 30 contain, respectively, a garage door and a square entrance to a recessed garage.

4-pane timber sash and case windows to No 26; 2-pane timber sash and case windows to No 28. Grey slate piended roof; coped wallhead stacks. Delicate cast-iron balustrade, divided at centre, to balcony.

INTERIOR: not seen 1996.

BOUNDARY WALLS: low coped boundary wall to street with bootscraper; low coped mutual boundary walls to SE and NW.

Statement of Interest

One of the earliest buildings in Blacket Place. It was Dr Benjamin Bell of Hunthill, an eminent Edinburgh surgeon and farmer, who 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 had 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, had inherited the land. He commissioned James Gillespie Graham in 1825 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, several of the houses probably 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 Q17793306

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

• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)