Description

Robert Matheson, 1865. 2-storey with basement bowed terrace of rusticated town-houses with 3-storey and basement corner pavilions (No 12 forms corner with No 24 Grosvenor Street and No 21 forms corner with 9 Rosebery Crescent - see separate list descriptions). Coursed, polished sandstone ashlar with polished dressings and V-jointed rustication to ground of main block; droved sandstone at basement. Base course; cill course to 1st floor; dentilled cornices to 1st floor pavilion windows; bracketed block cills to 2nd floor pavilion windows; banded eaves course and cornice to bowed block, with balustrade at wallhead; doorpiece comprising consoled, dentilled cornice and panelled framing pilasters with circular motif to entrance to each pavilion; moulded rectangular panels and brackets forming eaves course to pavilion cornices. Moulded margins to pavilions and to 1st floor bowed block. Pair of single, segmental-arched dormers to each house, except No 14 (tripartite dormer) and No 12 (no dormers).

N (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: corner block (No 12): 5-bay, symmetrical, advanced. Timber door with fanlight and small flanking light to right beneath entrance platt; pair of windows to each side, with steps down from street at right; doorpiece to centre at ground; panelled timber door with rectangular fanlight to doorpiece; regular fenestration to all remaining bays, all floors.

Main block: 24-bay, symmetrical, 8 3-bay sections: door with rectangular fanlight and flanking windows to each house at basement; 4-panel timber door (sometimes part-glazed) with rectangular fanlight to each house at ground, at bay to left Nos 13 and 17-19, bay to right Nos 14-16 and 20; windows to remaining bays at ground and to all bays, 1st floor.

Corner block (No 21): 4-bay, slightly advanced. Door and fanlight at basement to right of oversailing; windows to 2 bays to outer right and to bay to left; steps down from street level at left; doorpiece to penultimate bay to left at ground; 2-leaf panelled timber door with rectangular fanlight to doorpiece; regular fenestration to all remaining bays at ground and above.

Side elevation of No 21: 4-bay, regularly fenestrated at all floors (2 central windows closely spaced). Base course; cill course to 1st floor; eaves course; cornice. Shouldered wallhead stack at left; canted corniced dormer at right.

2-pane timber sash and case glazing. Grey slate roof, piended to pavilions; polished, coped, sandstone ashlar mutual and wallhead stacks (rendered coped stack to No 12) with tall and squat cylindrical cans; cast-iron rainwater goods.

RAILINGS: fleur-de-lys iron railings to street (in ashlar copes) and to ashlar steps and oversailing entrance platts; plain railings to basement steps.

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 Q17810923

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

• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)