Description

John Lessels, executed John Watherston and Sons 1880-82. Terrace comprising 4-storey and basement 2 and 3-bay unified façade of plain classical townhouses with main-door and common stair flats behind; angled and pilastered splayed corner to W; recessed 3-bay section (angled to side) to E end with advanced 2-storey bay in re-entrant angle abutting No. 20. Basement area to street including some vaulted cellars and retaining walls. Sandstone ashlar, channelled at ground floor. Entrance platts oversailing basement. Banded base course. Moulded cill courses at 1st and 2nd floors. Cornice at 3rd floor. Corniced eaves course. Architraved consoled and corniced doorways with plain rectangular fanlights. Corniced and consoled 3-light, 2-storey canted bays with fielded panels, (entrance to No. 22 in canted bay). Moulded architraved surrounds to ground, 1st 2nd and 3rd floors.

REAR ELEVATION: 4 storeys, coursed squared rubble with some ashlar quoins cills. Later 3-storey timber canted bay to left; further canted 2-storey stone bay further left. Later enlarged windows to 3rd floor at left.

Predominantly plate glass in timber sash and case windows; some 4-pane timber sash and case windows to rear. Corniced ashlar gable end and ridge stacks with modern clay cans. Cast-iron railings on ashlar copes edging basement recess to street. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: interior typified by highly decorative classical decorative scheme with detailed cornicing and some large foliate ceiling roses throughout ground and 1st floors. Converted for later office and residential use (2008).

Statement of Interest

These terraced houses form part of a well-detailed street incorporated into one of the later parts of the former Walker Estate. The design by John Lessels is characteristic of later Victorian planning, with large canted bays and fluent use of the classical language. The well detailed doorpieces and canted bay windows give the composition good rhythm and are a key characteristic of the surrounding streetscape.

John Lessels secured the control over the Walker Estate in 1850, only 4 years after he had set up practice on his own in 1846. He later went on to work for the City Improvement Trust in Edinburgh, and gained a wide experience of residential design with further designs in both the old and new towns of Edinburgh as well as some large commissions such as significant alterations to George Watson's Hospital.

(List description revised 2009 as part of re-survey.)

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17804613

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.

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