Description

John A Carfrae, 1902. 3-storey and attic T-plan Free Renaissance former school (basement to Bruntsfield Links). Bull-faced orange sandstone with cream ashlar dressings (ground floor to Bruntsfield Links entirely ashlar). Steeply-pitched roofs; finialled louvred lantern/ventilators to central block and flanking wings; decorative truncated obelisks on channelled pilaster strips with dentilled cornices to corners. Ashlar cill courses at 1st and 2nd floors; eaves cornice.

N (BRUNTSFIELD LINKS) ELEVATION: 23 bays, symmetrically grouped 3-1-1-1-1-1-3 on either side of central bay. Horizontal ashlar channelling to 1st and 2nd floors; dentilled eaves cornice. Small windows to basement in all left bays. Slightly advanced gabled blocks to outer left and right; 3 key-blocked segmental-headed windows to ground floor; 3 windows to 1st floor; larger window to centre of 2nd floor, key-blocked, supported by elongated brackets, and flanked by enriched Ionic columns with segmental pediments, flanked by 2 smaller windows. 2nd and 3rd bays from left and right have key-blocked round-arched window at ground floor, flanked by 2 smaller rectangular windows; 3 windows to 1st floor; window with segmental-pedimented dormerhead breaking eaves at 2nd floor, flanked by 2 smaller windows. Stone-mullioned bipartite windows to each floor (3 small finialled dormers to attic) in recessed bays flanking 3-storey canted bay. Stone-mullioned windows to canted bay; hexagonal windows to outer facets at 2nd floor level and ashlar balcony across flanking bays. Slightly advanced 7-bay centre block; segmental-headed key–blocked windows to outer 6 bays at ground floor; 7 windows to 1st and 2nd floors; those in penultimate bays to left and right flanked by enriched Ionic columns with segmental pediments breaking eaves, supported by elongated brackets which act as pedestals at 2nd floor; sculpted roundels in pediment and under 2nd floor windows; side windows at 1st floor flanked by Ionic pilasters.

E ELEVATION: ashlar to ground floor of main block to right; horizontal ashlar channelling to 1st floor. Corniced door in relieving arch off-set to left; 2 windows off-set to left at 1st floor; central window with segmental pediment breaking eaves at 2nd floor flanked by 2 smaller windows to either side. Tripartite window to E and W gable ends of taller central main block.

E ELEVATION OF T WING: 3 polychrome segmental-headed windows at ground floor to left; 3 large and 1 small window to right; 2nd floor regularly fenestrated (no window in outer left bay); larger windows with segmental-pedimented dormers breaking eaves alternate with smaller windows at 2nd.

S ELEVATION OF MAIN BLOCK: almost symmetrical. Moulded cill band at 1st and 2nd floors. Slightly advanced gabled outer blocks; right block ashlar to ground floor, with 2 segmental-headed windows; 3 windows to 1st floor, and key-blocked oeil-de boeuf window in gable; that to left bull-faced orange sandstone with 1 polychrome segmental-arched window off-set to right at ground floor, single windows off-set to right at 1st and 2nd. Entrances in outer bays of 3-storey flat-roofed advanced blocks clasping T-wing; modern glazed doors with segmental-arched fanlights in key-blocked ashlar doorpieces with broken-base consoled segmental pediments; segmental-headed windows in inner bays to ground floor; single windows to 1st floor, bipartites to 2nd. Flat-roofed blocks to outside of entrance bays (single storey at left, 3-storey to right) with small bipartites to ground floor; small bipartites in ashlar strips to 1st and 2nd floors of right bay. 4 intervening bays (3 to right) recessed; ashlar to 2nd floor; polychrome segmental-headed windows to ground, single windows to 1st; bipartites to 2nd floor.

S ELEVATION OF T WING: paired gabled blocks; window to right at ground floor. 4-bay extension (door in centre bay, window with pedimented gable breaking eaves above) adjoins ground floor of left block; 1st floor regularly fenestrated; tall window with segmental pediment to 2nd floor of each gabled block, flanked by smaller windows.

W ELEVATION OF T WING: lower 2-storey mansard-roofed wing adjoins W elevation; ashlar canted bay to ground, Serliana to 1st floor.

Predominantly 18-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows. Greenish slates. Stone skews. Cast-iron down pipes with decorative hoppers. Tall corniced orange bull-faced sandstone stacks (some rebuilt) with circular cans at wallheads and ridges.

BOUNDARY WALL, RAILINGS AND GATES: low boundary wall with cast-iron railings. Decorative cast-iron gates. Tall ashlar gatepiers with decorative caps.

Statement of Interest

Built as Boroughmuir School, one of the new Higher Grade (Science) schools, the school became James Gillespies in 1913 when the new Boroughmuir was opened. After the new Gillespie's was opened it became Boroughmuir Junior School. The building is now University of Edinburgh residences (2015).

Listed building record and statutory address updated (2015). Previously listed as '22-24 Warrender Park Crescent, former Boroughmuir School, including boundary wall, railings and gatepiers'.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17791618

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

• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)