Description

Robert Matheson, dated 1863-5. 1-and 2-storey, 3-bay T-plan picturesque bargeboarded lodge, with distinctive jerkin-headed gables. Situated at NW entrance to the Park (currently divided into 2 flats, 2007). Dark ashlar sandstone with polished cream margins, chamfered at windows. Base course, chamfered corners with cyma recta details above. Broad, overhanging eaves. E elevation with central gabled projecting porch with Tudor-arched door surround and timber boarded entrance door. Carved inset panel above with monogram VR and probable date of 1865 (see Notes). North elevation with 5-bay timber verandah.

Predominantly 2-pane timber casement windows, some later skylights. Graded blue and grey slates. Jerkin-headed roofs. Tall, coped ridge and wallhead stacks, splayed to wallhead.

INTERIOR: (seen 2007). Comprehensively modernised.

Statement of Interest

This picturesque lodge, situated at the North West Entrance to Holyrood Park is one of the four lodges planned by Prince Albert as part of his landscaping of Holyrood Park from 1855-8 and they all share the similar distinguishing gabled style. These lodges add significantly to the character of the Park and clearly demarcate the distinct parkland area of the Park from the surrounding city. St Leonard's is differentiated from the others by its distinctive timber verandah and it is thought to originally have been a tea room. A similar verandah was originally also positioned on the South elevation. The date in the panel above the E entrance door is weathered, but probably reads 1863 or 1865. The building first appears on the 2nd Edition Ordnance survey Map of 1876-7. The other lodges are Meadowbank, Duddingston and St Leonard's Lodges (see separate listings). The lodge was converted into 2 flats in the 1980s.

The grounds known as Holyrood Park had been associated with the Scottish royal household since the 12th century, and were extended to roughly their present boundaries in 1541-2 by James V. The rights of the Earl of Haddington as hereditary keeper of the Park were bought out in 1843, after Queen Victoria's first visit to the Palace in 1842, bringing it again under Royal control. In 1855-8, at the instigation of Prince Albert, plans were drawn up for the landscaping of the Park. Bogs were drained, Dunsapie and St Margaret's Lochs were formed, the Queen's Drive (originally Victoria Road) was constructed, and lodges built by Robert Matheson, who also executed work at Holyrood Palace during the same period. Albert also intended to build a rustic thatched restaurant at Dunsapie Loch, but this plan was abandoned in the face of stout public opposition. With the exception of the occupied buildings, including the lodges, the Park is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.

List description revised as part of the Edinburgh Holyrood Ward resurvey 2007-08. Category changed from B to C(S) 2008.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77779699

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

• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)