Description

Robert Matheson, 1865. 2-storey with attic and basement bowed terrace of rusticated townhouses with 3-storey and basement corner pavilions (No 1 forms corner block with 28 Palmerston Place, No 9 with 23 and 25 Grosvenor Street, both of which form part of separate list descriptions). Polished, channelled sandstone ashlar with polished dressings and V-jointed rustication to ground of main block; droved sandstone at basement. Base course; banded cill course to 1st floor; dentilled cornices to 1st floor pavilion windows; bracketed block cills to 2nd floor pavilion windows; panelled eaves course with brackets to pavilion cornices; banded eaves course, cornice and stone balustrade to main block. Doorpiece comprising consoled cornice (dentilled to No 1) and panelled framing pilasters with circular motif to lugged moulded margin to entrance to each pavilion. Moulded margins to pavilion windows and to 1st floor main block. Pair of segmental-arched bipartite dormers to each house (flat-roofed modern replacement dormer at right of No 8).

NW (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: corner block (No 1): 5-bay, slightly advanced. Door with fanlight and flanking window on right beneath oversailing entrance platt to bay to centre at basement; windows to remaining bays at basement; 2-leaf 2-panel timber door with rectangular fanlight to doorpiece to bay to centre at ground; windows to remaining bays at ground and to all bays, upper floors. Corner block (No 9): 5-bay, slightly advanced. Modern replacement window and narrow flanking light beneath platt to bay to centre at basement; door and fanlight to bay to outer left, window to intermediate bay and to two bays to right at basement; window replacing door to doorpiece to bay to centre at ground; regular fenestration to all remaining bays, all floors.

Main block (Nos 2-8): 23-bay block (No 2 5-bay, remainder 3-bay). Door with fanlight and flanking windows to each house at basement; 4-panel timber door with rectangular fanlight to left of each 3-bay section at ground (to centre of 5-bay section, No 2); windows to remaining bays at ground and to all bays 1st floor; consoled stone balcony with scroll-shaped wrought-iron railings to window above door to No 2.

2-pane timber sash and case glazing. Grey slate roof, piended to pavilions; mixture of channelled, sandstone ashlar and rendered, coped stacks with cylindrical cans; cast-iron rainwater goods.

RAILINGS: fleur-de-lys iron railings to street (set in coping) and to ashlar steps and oversailing entrance platts; plain railings to steps to basement (accessed from street at right of each house).

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 Q17810825

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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  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)