Description

David Clunas (adapting a design by David Cousin and John Lessels - see Notes). 1870-71. Pair of 4-storey and gabled attic, 5 bay tenements with 17th century revival detailing, stepped to sloping ground and forming part of a planned run on E side of Blackfriars Street. Squared and snecked rubble with ashlar dressings. Chamfered window margins. Painted shop fronts to ground; string course at 1st floor, corbel table above 2nd floor. NW corner to Skinners Close canted at ground and corbelled-out at each floor above. Bipartite window to 4th-storey outer left bay with strapwork pediment. Some crowstepped gables.

Plate glass timber sash and case windows. Graded, grey Scottish slate. Coped end and wall-head gable stacks. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

Statement of Interest

No 45-51 Blackfriars Street is a good example of early City Improvement Act construction and tenement design. 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 Nos 11-15 and Nos 23-29 (see separate listings), 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 Q17793527

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

• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)