Description

Late 17th century. 4-storey and attic 3-bay tenement with shop to ground floor, stepped with slope of street (flats entered from common stair at No 87). Random rubble with relieving arches and ashlar margins. Cill courses at 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors. Crowstepped gable above eaves cornice with 2 windows and small window to right, 2 flight-holes above. Recessed glazed timber door and dentilled cornice to shop front (George Fox, 1863). Random rubble to rear, irregularly fenestrated; crowstepped gable with single window.

12-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows. Grey slates.

Statement of Interest

Until after the 1827 Improvement Act West Bow was a steep Z-shaped street which climbed from the Grassmarket to Upper Bow at the foot of Castlehill. Most of the old buildings in West Bow were swept away to make room for the northern side of Victoria Street, built to link the Grassmarket with the new George IV Bridge. Before their demolition, Thomas Hamilton, the architect for the scheme, made careful elevational drawings of the buildings. As Hamilton's drawing shows, the first five houses at the lower end of the street on the W remain. The flats at upper levels of No 89 West Bow are now entered from No 87.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17568962

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

• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)