Description

1888. Symmetrical, 3-storey, 10-bay (8-bay to upper floors to front elevation) double tenement block. Squared snecked rubble with stugged margins (coursed rubble to side elevation). Base course; eaves cornice. Stugged long and short quoins. Regular fenestration.

SE (PRINCIPLE) ELEVATION: timber-panelled door with letterbox fanlight to 3rd and 8th bays to ground floor. To upper floors, 2nd and 3rd bays and 6th and 7th bays are close-spaced.

NW (REAR) ELEVATION: to 3rd and 8th bays; door to ground floor, windows at half-storey to upper floors.

GLAZING etc: mixture of 4-pane and plate glass glazing in timber sash and case windows to front elevation; mixture of 12-pane and plate glass glazing in timber sash and case windows to rear. Pitched roof; grey slates; stone skews and skewputts. 4 wallhead stacks to front elevation; 1 gablehead stack to left; 1 ridge stack to centre; 1 gablehead stack to right; all stacks corniced and rendered with circular cans.

BOUNDARY WALL: to rear, random rubble wall, built circa 1800 (see Notes) with occasional brick sections; flat stone coping.

Statement of Interest

A good example of smaller scale simple residential architecture of the late nineteenth century. It also has streetscape and historical value as an element of the Gayfield estate development.

3 and 5 Gayfield Street forms part of the Gayfield Estate, so called because it stands on the former grounds of Gayfield House (East London Street; 1763-5, still extant; separately listed Category A). These lands were feued by the solicitor James Jollie from 1785. Building began on either side of the drive to the house; the building line on the SW of Gayfield Square follows the line of the drive. These developments began to establish the form of Gayfield Square, which forms the heart of the estate. The gardens at the core of the square were preserved from development as early as the 1790s; Sasines record that '..the area of Gayfield Place [is] to remain an open space for all time coming.' Union Street is on the boundary of these lands, the north side being Gayfield land, and the south side of the street built on land at the edge of the adjoining Picardy estate.

3 and 5 Gayfield Street is built on the back garden land of 6 Gayfield Square (see separate List description), which was owned by James Shaw. It is likely that Shaw, who was a land agent and accountant, bought the villa with a view to developing its garden land. The wall to the rear of 3 and 5 Gayfield Square is part of the original garden wall of 6 Gayfield Square. Shaw subsequently developed part of the garden land of 7 and 8 Gayfield Square in 1890, building a compact tenement which was named Shaw's Square.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q56632407

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

• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)