Description

Robert Matheson, 1865. 3-storey and basement Italianate tenements with corner pavilions (4-storey at Maitland Street West end, Nos 2 and 4) 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.

NE (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: advanced 5-bay corner block at right (No 24 Grosvenor Street forming corner with No 12 Lansdowne Crescent - see separate list description): windows to 4 bays to right at basement, penultimate blocked; timber door with fanlight and small flanking window at right to bay to outer left; panelled timber door with rectangular fanlight to bay to outer left at ground; regular fenestration to all remaining bays, all floors. 29-bay recessed intervening block comprising 7 3-bay sections, with 4-bay sections to outer left and right; 5 bays to basement of 4-bay section at left, comprising 4-panel timber door to centre with windows to flanking bays; 4-panel timber door with rectangular fanlight to doorpiece to penultimate bay to left at ground; windows to remaining bays at ground and to all bays, upper floors; 4-panel timber door to penultimate bay to right of 4-bay section at right of basement, with narrow flanking light at right and windows to all remaining bays; flat-roofed glazed modern porch to penultimate bay to right at ground; windows to remaining bays at ground and to all bays, upper floors; door to centre of each 3-bay section at basement, with flanking windows (bay at right sometimes infilled beneath oversailing platt, with door and window to return); 4-panel timber door, often part-glazed, to doorpiece to right of each 3-bay section at ground; windows to remaining bays at ground and to all bays, upper floors; continuous slate-hung attic to majority of intervening block; individual dormers at left.

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 with squat cylindrical cans; cast-iron rainwater goods.

CORNER BLOCK: 5-bay to Grosvenor St, 3-bay to Haymarket, with bowed corner bays to Clifton Terrace and Grosvenor St: base course, cill course to 1st and 3rd floors, block cills to 2nd floor; eaves course and cornice as Grosvenor St; cornice recessed to bowed bays; margins to all openings, except at basement and bowed bays. Grosvenor St elevation: ashlar steps and entrance platt to penultimate bay to left (extended to bay to right) and to bay to outer right (No 4); steps down to basement; windows to basement, with iron gate to pend at outer right; 4-panel timber door to doorpiece to No 4 at outer right at ground, with rectangular fanlight; doorpiece to penultimate bay to left, with door converted to window; windows to remaining bays at ground and to all bays, upper floors. Bowed bays: single window to basement, tripartite windows to all floors above. Haymarket elevation: part-glazed timber door to No 2A at left below central oversailing entrance platt; window to bay to outer left at basement; window bay at right blocked; entrance portico to central bay at ground, comprising free-standing Corinthian columns in front of Corinthian pilasters, dentilled cornice and modern metal railings forming balcony to 1st floor above; 2-leaf timber doors with small carved rosette motifs and metal details; ornate geometrical fanlight; windows to flanking bays and to all bays upper floors.

Unpainted, timber-framed, margin-paned glazing to ground floor; 2- and 4- and multi-pane timber sash and case glazing to upper floors and basement; grey slate piended roof; coped sandstone ashlar stacks with cylindrical cans; cast-iron rainwater goods.

RAILINGS: fleur-de-lys iron railings (set in ashlar coping) to street and to entrance platts; plain railings to steps down to basement and to steps to Haymarket entrance.

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 West Coates estate, which he purchased circa 1860 and subsequently developed. Opulent interiors were designed for many of the houses.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17808246

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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  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
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  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
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  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)