Description

R & R Dickson. 1826. 1-25 Gardner's Crescent: plain classical crescent of 4-storey tenements with basement, continuous with 4-storey V-plan block at corner of Morrison Street. Nos 1-6 comprise 17 bays linking Morrison Street and crescent proper (Nos 7-25A), which extends in unbroken sweep of 52 bays. Polished sandstone ashlar; basement droved. Base course; cill course to 1st floor; plain 2-storey giant order to 1st and 2nd floors; projecting cornice beneath 3rd floor; banded cornice; blocking course. Oversailing platts to entrance doors; doors to basement beneath; architraved segmental-topped door and window openings to ground floor; panelled aprons to ground floor windows of Nos 7-25A; regular fenestration to all upper floors and basement.

No 1. 4 bay. Recessed door to left; single windows to bays to right; plain moulding to pediment.

No 2. 3 bay. Recessed door to right; single windows to bays to left; no giant order; non-projecting cornice beneath 3rd floor.

No 3. 3 bay. Recessed door to right; single windows to bays to left; pilasters between windows of 3rd floor.

No 4. 3 bay. Recessed door to left; single windows to bays to right; no giant order; non-projecting cornice beneath 3rd floor.

Nos 5 and 6. 2 recessed doors to right; single windows to bays to left single windows to all floors of bay in return to right (ground floor window blind); plain moulding to pediment.

Nos 7 and 7A. 5 bay. Includes 5-storey square pyramid-roofed tower joining Nos 1-6 with crescent proper. Steps to central 6-panelled timber entrance door; single windows to bays to right; bay to left forms angle to square tower; additional window to right of uppermost tower floor; re-entrant angle of tower regularly fenestrated.

Nos 8-25A. 48 bay. 6 sections of 8 bays with regular sequence of windows (4-1-4-1) and doors (1-2-1) at ground; panelled timber entrance doors; variety of glazing patterns to fanlights.

109-115 (Odd Nos) Morrison Street: 4-storey tenement block, 4-bay symmetrical section (Nos 109-113) to Morrison Street, bowed 3-bay corner to Gardner's Crescent (No 115). Droved sandstone ashlar; polished sandstone ashlar to No 115. Base course; dividing band course between ground and 1st floors and, to bowed section only, projecting cornice; projecting cornice between 2nd and 3rd floors; cornice; blocking course. Voussoirs to ground floor openings and architraves to 1st floor windows of bowed section. Regular fenestration to upper floors; semicircular fanlight to all fenestration at ground in bowed section.

N (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: glass shop window to outer left; 2 recessed doors to left; fanlights; timber door, flanking single windows to right. 2-leaf timber door with glass panels to bow; flanking single windows.

Timber sash and case windows, predominantly 2- or 12-pane; basement windows predominantly 8-pane timber sash and case with some 2-pane and 12-pane; variety of fanlights, predominantly geometric. Grey slate piended roof. Coped stacks with corniced cans. Individual decorative cast-iron balustrades to 1st floor windows of Nos 2, 9, 10, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23 and to ground floor window to left of door to No 7; continuous ironwork balconies to 3rd floor of Nos 14 and 17 Gardner's Crescent. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

RAILINGS: original spear-headed wrought-iron railings to street and flanking platts of Gardner's Crescent.

Statement of Interest

A group with 85-89 and 91-107 Morrison Street. Nos 1-25A Gardner's Crescent (the name coming from William Gardner who feued out the land) and 91-115 Morrison Street were built as a unified scheme, an outlier of Edinburgh's New Town.

From the outset the buildings comprised a large number of small and medium sized flats, the larger ones with more interesting internal detail being those in Gardner's Crescent. Considerable uniformity of external treatment is achieved with the plain ashlar frontage, the joints in the masonry line up with some of the astragals of the 12-pane sash and case glazing, unusual at this early date. The continuation of the cornice below 3rd floor cill level to either side of the 3-window bow joining the 2 blocks at the point of the 'V' ingeniously overcomes the awkwardness of the site by providing cohesion.

Rehabilitation work, principally of the corner flats, undertaken by McLeod and Traub in 1980.

Gardner's Crescent first appears on an 1828 Plan of Edinburgh and Leith labelled 'Gardener's Crescent'.

Listed building record and statutory address updated (2015). Previously listed as '1-25A (Inclusive nos) Gardener's Crescent and 109-115 (odd nos) Morrison Street including railings'.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17569257

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.

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