Description

Later 18th century. Terraced tenement on elevated site above street level; 4-bay (front and rear elevations) 4-storey and attic. Random rubble with dressed margins. Dormer-headed windows breaking eaves. Long and short dressed quoins.

S (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: timber-panelled door with lozenge-pattern letterbox fanlight, flanked by 2 windows to left, 1 to right. Cast iron window guards (see Notes) to 1st floor cills.

N (REAR) ELEVATION: modern 2- story timber and concrete extension to centre. Nepus gable at centre flanked to left and right by dormerheaded window breaking eaves; canted tripartite timber dormers to outer right and left bays to roof above.

W ELEVATION: only upper storeys visible; remainder concealed by No. 20-22 adjoining (see separate List description). Window to outer left bay to 3rd and 4th floors; window to outer right to 3rd floor.

GLAZING etc: predominantly 12-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows; 4-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows to side sections of canted dormers; modern glazing to rear extension. Dormers have timber fascias with grey slate haffits and piend roofs. 4 rooflights to roof to S elevation. Pitched roof; graded grey slate; stone skews and skewputts. Rendered gablehead stacks with circular cans to W gable and N nepus gable; ridge stack to E.

BOUNDARY WALLS: To front, paved ramp leading to stone steps (modern handrails); high rubble retaining walls with stone copes and dressed quoins flanking left and right. Slightly concave curved returns of walls flank beginning of pathway, then drop to dwarf level for remainder of length. To rear, high rubble wall with stone copes enclosing garden area.

Statement of Interest

A-Group with 16, 18, 20, 22, 26 and 13 Calton Hill and Rock House, Calton Hill.

Important as one of the few remaining examples of early tenement design outside the Old and New towns, this tenement stands on land feued in the 1760s to John Horn, wright, and William Pirnie, bricklayer, and was possibly built by the same. The cast iron window guards on the S elevation, which take the form of a gothic gatehouse flanked by a battlemented wall, are an unusual and interesting detail.

This building is one of the last remains of the old Calton or Caldtoun Village, which formed the heart of the Barony of Calton. This was, before the development of Waterloo Place and the Regent Bridge, a community quite remote (both in social and infrastructure terms) from the City of Edinburgh proper. The village was part of the parish of South Leith, and members of the community travelled to Leith to worship. It was however considered unsatisfactory to bury the dead of Calton at Leith, and so the Incorporated Trades of Calton (est. 1631) bought and maintained a burying-ground for the use of the Barony. Before the construction of Regent Bridge formed a new direct route to Calton Hill from the New Town, the only means of access to the original burying ground and Calton Hill itself was via the "steep, narrow, stinking spiral street" (Cockburn) now known as Calton Hill (formerly High Calton).

The Regent Bridge and Waterloo Place development required the intersection of the burying-ground (now known as the Old Calton Burying Ground), and also resulted in the demolition of many of the old houses of Calton Burgh. In the 1970s, the remaining old village houses on the lower portion of the north side of Calton Hill were demolished. The street is cobbled, and on the south side retains a wide iron gutter into which a wedge attached to carts and carriages could be fitted, in order to assist braking on the steep and dangerous descent

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17795336

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

• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)