Description

John Baxter, circa 1798. Symmetrical tenement block, 4-storey and attic (5-storey and attic to rear), 8-bay elevation. Later shops built out to ground floor. Droved ashlar (coursed squared rubble with dressed margins to rear). Cill course to 2nd and 3rd floors; eaves cornice; blocking course. Panelled giant pilasters to outer left and right. Regular fenestration.

W (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: 2-storey extension with pilastered timber elevation to left; single storey extension with round-arched openings to right. Canted dormers to roof.

E (REAR) ELEVATION: 5-storey and attic, 7-bay elevation. Tripartite windows to 1st floor. Dormers to roof.

GLAZING etc: predominantly 12-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows. Grey slate haffits and roofs (piended to left, conical to right) to dormers; 2 rooflights to W elevation. Pitched roof; graded grey slates; stone skews and skewputts. Corniced rendered stacks with circular cans; gablehead stack to N and S, ridge stack to centre, 2 wallhead stacks to rear.

Statement of Interest

This is the last remaining example of the long stretch of tenements and shops which once lined the E side of Leith Walk, known as Greenside Place and Greenside Street. These were demolished in the 1970s. It is a good example of a late 18th century tenement.

23-27 Greenside Place is built on land feued by the City to John Baxter. The land upon which it is built is marked as 'Baxter's Feu' on Kincaid's 1784 map of Edinburgh. Baxter was a builder from Portobello, whose son, John Baxter junior, became an architect well regarded enough to have been asked to be one of the judges of the competition for laying out the grounds of Calton Hill in 1813. Either separately or in partnership, father and son appear to have been involved in several building projects in the Greenside/Leith Street area in the early 19th century. The building is thought to have originally had urns above the eaves (see Gifford et al, EDINBURGH)

Originally built as a tenement block, 23-27 Greenside Place now houses two pubs at ground floor, with open plan office space on the upper floors.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17795149

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

• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)