Description

Possibly Thomas Gibson, circa 1880. 4-storey, corner tenement with Scots Baronial details and corner tower, forming junction of terraces; No 123 subdivided to form ground floor and basement flats, early 1970s. Coursed yellow sandstone with polished ashlar dressings. Base course; string course at 3rd floor; eaves cornice; chamfered reveals at ground and 1st floors, stop-chamfered above; deep-set panelled doors; plate glass fanlights.

S (WARRENDER PARK ROAD) ELEVATION: 4-bay, including corner tower in bay to outer right. Roll-moulded doorway with bracketted cornice in 3rd bay; blinded balustraded blocking course forming apron to single window at 1st floor above; single windows to 2nd and 3rd floors; pedimented dormerhead linked to wallhead stack. Roll-moulded doorway in 1st bay; hoodmoulded square recessed panel set between 1st and 2nd floors. Bipartite windows to each floor in 2nd bay; blank heraldic shield set in gablehead; stone finial.

CORNER TOWER: 3-stage canted window, corbelled to circular section at 3rd floor; machicolated cornices to outer lights of canted windows at 1st and 2nd floors; cornice to fishscale conical roof with 4 lucarnes.

E (MARCHMONT STREET) elevation: 3-bay excluding corner tower bay to outer left. Full-height canted window in bay to outer right; swept and facetted pyramidal roof. Single windows in central bay; cornice to ground floor window. Cipher panel at 2nd floor of 1st bay; blinded single window at 3rd floor. Gable with gabletted crowsteps linking 1st and 2nd bays.

Plate glass sash and case windows. Grey slate roof; corniced wallhead, gablehead and mutual stacks; gabletted skewputts; iron weathervane finial to conical roof; finials to 2 lucarnes.

INTERIOR: not seen 1991. Drawing room of No 123 contains fine white marble fireplace with original grate and tiled inset depicting characters and scenes from Sir Walter Scott's Waverley Novels (information courtesy of owner, 2001).

Low saddleback wall to streets.

Statement of Interest

This tenement forms part of the £220,000 scheme initiated by the builders W & D Macgregor for the blocks of tenements now comprising Warrender Park Crescent, Marchmont Street, Warrender Park Road, and Alvanley Terrace. According to the Building News, Thomas Gibson was the architect, although Dean of Guild Court records show that other architects were involved.

The tenement suburb of Marchmont developed between circa 1876 and 1914

following the feuing of the Warrender family estate (land south of the Meadows).

Marchmont's development can be viewed in two distinct phases, with the first phase, prior to 1900, largely following the plan laid out by David Bryce of 1869. This phase, which saw the construction of streets in the north and east of the site, is characterised by the individual nature of the work by builders and architects who frequently developed only one or two feus at a time. These tenements were built predominantly in the baronial style following guidelines set down in the 1869 feu charter. In the second phase, after 1900, the baronial style recedes and elevations become more uniform.

Listed building record and statutory address updated (2015). Previously listed as '123 and 125 Warrender Park Road'.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17806107

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

• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)