Description

Sir James Gowans, 1868-70. 3-storey and attic 3-bay mansard-roofed tenement block (projecting from street line at right) with idiosyncratic details. Polished ashlar (painted to ground). String courses dividing floors; stone bracketed eaves. Decorative bracketed surrounds to windows. Serrated Moorish lintels to 1st floor. Windows to 2nd floor push up bracketed eaves below dormers. Steeply-pitched gabled dormers with pentagonal windows and stone bracketed eaves (date-1868-in central dormer) to attic. Entrance in centre bay: modern glazed 2-leaf timber door in round-arched surround with serrated decoration in spandrels. Tripartite windows with decorative stone mullions at 1st and 2nd floors to centre bay and at ground in flanking bays.

Plate glass in timber sash and case windows. Graded grey slates. Moulded stone ridge. Fluted ashlar stalks with scalloped, bracketed cornices; decorative octagonal cans with serrated tops.

Statement of Interest

Part of a larger ensemble designed by Gowans: with characteristically logical planning, idiosyncratic detailing and exemplary execution. Design based on multiples of 2 ft and angles of 22.5, 45 and 67.5 degrees. 'The Builder' admires Gowans' plan, with 'the water closets all ventilated from the outside,' and 'dark bedrooms at the centre of corner blocks got rid of,' but not the 'geometric details,' considering them to have 'novelty value only,' and 'more suited for execution in wood,' while admitting 'the general effect' to be 'striking and picturesque.' The A Group comprises 11-15 Cornwall Street, 25 Castle Terrace and 17 Cornwall Street, 26-28 Castle Terrace, 29 Castle Terrace, 30, 31 and 32 Castle Terrace, 33, 34 and 35 Castle Terrace and 36 Castle Terrace.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17567492

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

• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)