Description

1795. 3-storey, attic and basement, 5-bay terraced classical house. Broached ashlar sandstone. Band courses between basement and principal floor, and 1st and 2nd floors; frieze at impost level at principal floor; cill course at 1st floor, broken with lowered cills except in bay to outer right; mutuled cornice and blocking course at 2nd floor. Projecting cills at 2nd floor. Doric pilasters flanking bays at principal floor. Ashlar steps and entrance platts oversailing basement.

N (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: arcaded principal floor, with round-arched doorpieces comprising 9-panel timber doors and radial semicircular fanlights, at centre and in bay to outer right at principal floor. Windows in round-arched recesses in remaining bays at principal floor; regular fenestration to floors above; irregular fenestration to basement. Flagged basement area.

W ELEVATION: adjoining terrace, see separate listing (45 York Place).

E ELEVATION: adjoining terrace, see separate listing (51 York Place).

S (REAR) ELEVATION: not seen, 1998.

Predominantly plate glass timber sash and case windows. Grey slate M-roof. 2-tier continuous dormers, spanning 4 bays; vertically-boarded top tier, with modern timber and metal railing balustrade over lower tier. Cast-iron rainwater goods. Broached ashlar ridge stacks; coped, with circular cans. Coped skews.

RAILINGS: ashlar copes surmounted by cast-iron railings with spear-headed and urn finials.

Statement of Interest

Part of the Edinburgh New Town A Group, a significant surviving part of one of the most important and best preserved examples of urban planning in Britain. Feuing in York Place began in 1793, after Lord Alva sold land to the north east of St Andrew Square to the city.

47 York Place was the home of the great portrait and landscape painter Alexander Nasmyth (1758-1840), and was the birthplace of his son James Nasmyth (1809-90) who invented the steam hammer, in 1839. Alexander Nasmyth set up a school of art at York Place, where his daughters helped him with teaching and organising sketching trips, becoming notable painters themselves, as did his son Patrick (1787-1831) who later painted in England, being called 'the English Hobbema'. The 2-storied attic contained 'a noble and commodious room. There he held his class... A splendid prospect was seen from the upper windows; and especially from the Belvidere [sic], which he had constructed on the summit of the roof. It extended from Stirling in the west to the Bass in the east'.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17569156

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

• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Shredded Chef: 120 Recipes for Building Muscle, Getting Lean, and Staying Healthy
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)