Description

David Clunas (adapting a design by David Cousin and John Lessels - see Notes). 1871-3. 4-storey and attic, 4 bay, retail and residential tenement situated on sloping ground and forming part of a unified run on E side of Blackfriars Street. Squared and snecked rubble with sandstone ashlar dressings. Chamfered, long and short window margins. Shops to ground; timber door to centre; recessed doorways to shops to left and right. Moulded cill course at 3rd storey. Pedimented dormers breaking moulded eaves course. Timber pedimented attic dormers above, set within pitch of roof.

4-pane glazing to timber sash and case windows. Graded, grey Scottish slate. Broad coped ashlar stacks; clay cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

Statement of Interest

Nos 11, 13 and 15 Blackfriars Street is a good example of early City Improvement Act construction and integrated tenement design. These tenements run the length of the E side of Blackfriars Street. The steep pitches and variations of composition at attic and dormer level reflect the diversified roof-lines of the Canongate and Old Town in general and also provide streetscape interest. The interest of the individual tenements is greatly increased by their group value as a significant part of the Old Town's evolution in the 2nd half of the 19th century.

David Clunas, famed for his early experiments with mass-concrete construction, adapted this block and also No 23-29 (see separate listing), following Cousin and Lessels' designs. John Lessels (1809-1883), who came from a family of successful Edinburgh builder-architects, was appointed joint architect to the City Improvement Trust in 1866 along with David Cousin, the City Architect. In response to the Improvement Act of 1867, they laid out plans for St Mary Street, Blackfriars Street, Jeffrey Street and Chambers Street. The architecture 'reflected Cousin's transition from pure Italian Renaissance to a mid Victorian freestyle also evident in his later bank-houses' (Dictionary of Scottish Architects).

Formerly known as Blackfriars Wynd, the E side was demolished in 1867 under the Improvement Act, the roadway widened and subsequently renamed Blackfriars Street as part of the first wave of sanitary improvements within the Old Town. Throughout the 19th Century the Old Town's prosperity declined as large sections of the nobility and middle classes moved out of the area in favour of the grandeur and improved facilities of Edinburgh's New Town. The Improvement Act of 1867 made efforts to address this, responding early on with large-scale slum clearance and redevelopment of entire street frontages. The Act involved the large-scale clearance, on health grounds, of 34 selected areas of the Old Town. The new buildings were intended for workers and artisans.

Part of B-Group comprising 1-67 (Odd Nos) Blackfriars Street (see separate listings). Category changed from C(S) to B (1992). List description revised as part of Edinburgh Holyrood Ward Resurvey (2007/08).

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17793470

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

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  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
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  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)