Description

GATEHOUSE: William Playfair, 1828. Rectangular-plan embattled, bartizaned gatehouse with round-arched rib-vaulted entrance and flanking single storey lodges. Coursed ashlar with polished ashlar dressings. Base course; moulded band at impost level; voussoirs decorated with roses and mullets; enriched key console; buckle quoins. Timber panelled doors in corniced moulded surrounds with strapwork pediments from entrance tunnel to lodges, flanked by small aedicular windows. Parapets with loopholes and pedimented decorative brackets with gargoyles; aedicular windows (niches to N) with strapwork pediments to N, S E and W elevations of lodges.

TERRACES: balustered terraces surrounding main building, carriage entrance and steps at N, NE, NW, SE and SW (see Notes).

WAR MEMORIAL: James B Dunn, 1922. Stone pelican on square base atop octagonal column on octagonal base with carved arms and inscriptions alternating with copper panels bearing names of fallen of 1st World War. Additions and repairs (Reid and Forbes, 1949): to rear of balustraded platform, ashlar wall with inset copper panels bearing names of 2nd World War dead.

BOUNDARY WALL, RAILINGS AND GATES: low coursed ashlar boundary wall with rounded ashlar coping and tall stone obelisks at intervals. Spear-headed cast-iron railings; tall decorative cast-iron gates to entrance tunnel. Tall ashlar-coped rubble wall to E (boundary with Greyfriars churchyard); coping swept down to tall corniced obelisk-topped ashlar gatepiers; decorative wrought-iron 2-leaf gates with lamp and Heriot crest.

Statement of Interest

The A Group comprises the main building, the Examination Hall, the Chemistry and Technology Blocks, the Preparatory Department, the Science Block and the gatehouse, terraces, war memorial, boundary walls, railings and gates. The school was originally intended to be viewed from the N, and entered from the Grassmarket, the building having its back to the Flodden Wall. However, as the area to the N became built up, and the city expanded, the entrance was moved to Lauriston Place. Playfair's additions were intended to have the effect of turning the building round, lending dignity and importance to the new entrance. The W, S and E elevations of the main building were faced with Craigleith stone by Alexander Black in 1833. The school was built on a terraced platform, and surrounded by walled parterres. Playfair also added the balustered parapets, carriage entrance and steps. In the grounds there is also an ornamental stone from the former Heriot foundation school in Chambers Street (1846).

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17794974

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

• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
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  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
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  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)