Description

Robert Matheson, 1865. 3-storey and basement Italianate tenements with corner pavilions (4-storey at West Maitland Street end, Nos 1 and 3; Nos 23 and 25 form corner with No 9 Lansdowne Crescent, listed separately) and modern attic to intervening block. Polished sandstone ashlar, droved at basement. Base course; cill course to 1st floor; dentilled cornices to 1st floor windows; bracketed block cills to 2nd floor; panelled eaves course incorporating fluted brackets to cornice and blocking course above. Consoled, dentilled cornices and panelled pilasters with circular motif to doorpieces; moulded margins.

SW (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: advanced 6-bay corner block at left (Nos 23-25 Grosvenor Street forming corner with 9 Lansdowne Crescent): windows to 6 bays at basement with small additional modern light at outer right; ashlar steps to bay to outer right at ground; doorpiece with door converted to window; regular fenestration to all remaining bays, all floors (penultimate bay to left at 2nd floor blocked). Corner block at right, Nos 1 and 3 Grosvenor Street (front elevation): advanced 5-bay block, with recessed, bowed corner bay at outer right; steps down to basement door to right of oversailing platt at bay to left; steps down to passage door at outer left; doorpieces at bay to left and penultimate bay to right at ground; 6-panel timber door to bay to left at ground, with rectangular fanlight; window to former doorway to penultimate bay to right; regular fenestration to all remaining bays, all floors. Side elevation (to Maitland Street West): advanced 4-bay block with recessed, bowed corner bay at outer left; modern restaurant facade at ground, comprising pair of glazed entrance doors with marble surround (at corner), full-length metal-framed windows and rendered remainder, all with metal canopy; regular fenestration to upper floors. 1st and 2nd floor windows (both elevations) treated as main block; cill course to 3rd floor, with margins to windows; tripartite windows to all upper floors, corner bay.

28-bay recessed intervening block comprising 9 3-bay sections, with additional single bay at outer left: door to centre of each 3-bay section at basement; window to bay to right, with steps down from right; bay to left of centre often infilled beneath oversailing platt, with windows to return; doorpiece to penultimate bay to left at ground and to every third bay thereafter; variety of panelled timber and part-glazed timber doors to doorpieces, some converted to windows; modern hotel entrance canopy to twelfth bay from right; regular fenestration to remaining bays at ground and to upper floors; continuous slate-hung attic.

4- and 2-pane timber sash and case windows. Grey slate piended roof to end pavilions; attic roof not visible; regularly disposed coped sandstone ashlar stacks, cans removed; cast-iron rainwater goods.

RAILINGS: fleur-de-lys iron railings (set in painted ashlar coping) to street and to entrance platts.

Statement of Interest

Part of New Town A-Group. Robert Matheson was Surveyor for the Board of Works in Scotland. Along with his public work, Matheson also designed buildings for his part of the estate of West Coates, which he bought circa 1860 and subsequently developed. Opulent interiors were designed for many of the houses.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17808199

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

• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)