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Summary

Description

John Tait, 1855. Prominent corner tenement block 4-storey and basement, 5-bay with 3-bay return to NE (Lennox Street); all Italianate classical style. Sandstone ashlar, channelled at ground floor. Entrance platts oversailing basement area recess to street. Banded base course; banded cill course at 1st floor; scrolled bracketed balconies with geometric cast-iron railings at 1st floor to SE elevation (Eton Terrace); moulded cill course at 3rd floor; corniced and dentilled eaves course. Banded doorways with predominantly timber 2-leaf, 6-panel doors and rectangular fanlights. Moulded architraved and corniced 1st floor windows. Deep bracketed cills to moulded architraved 2nd and 3rd floor windows.

W (REAR) ELEVATION: coursed squared rubble with tooled ashlar ryabts, lintels and cills. Roughly regular fenestration.

Predominantly 8-pane glazing pattern in timber sash and case windows, 12-pane at basement and 3rd floor. Double-pitched roof; grey slates. Corniced ashlar ridge and end stacks with octagonal clay cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods. Cast-iron railings edging basement area recess to street.

INTERIOR: (selection of interiors seen 2010) decorative classical scheme, characterised by intricate plasterwork, large drawing rooms and stone stairs with well-detailed balustrades, topped by large cupolas. Some later conversion to flats.

Statement of Special Interest

The design is a major example of the mid 19th century treatment of urban classical architecture with severe astylar Italianate detailing. A prominent corner block with a finely detailed architectural design including corniced 1st floor windows. The block is part of the early development of the West End of Edinburgh in the mid 19th century after the completion of the nearby Dean Bridge (see separate listing). The building is an integral part of Edinburgh's New Town, which is an outstanding example of classical urban planning that was influential throughout Britain and Europe.

The block forms part of the earliest phase of the long delayed residential expansion of the city in the mid 19th century to the north of the Dean Bridge, following its completion in 1831-2. The bridge had been part funded by John Learmonth, Lord Provost of Edinburgh, who wanted to improve access to his land to the west of the Water of Leith to allow for further residential development. The delayed development of the area around Clarendon Crescent, Oxford Terrace and Eton Terrace forced Learmonth to sell the feus to the Heriot Trust.

John Tait designed Clarendon Crescent, Eton Terrace and Oxford Terrace on behalf of Learmonth, and his designs were retained following the transfer of the feus to the Heriot Trust. Tait was experienced in designing residential urban and suburban schemes having supervised Rutland Square (see separate listings) and worked on the feuing plan for Inverleith Terrace (see separate listings). Little is known about his architectural training, but his designs are marked by a refined use of restrained classicism. This contrasts with the bolder classical style of the mid to later nineteenth century, which was developed in other parts of the Learmonth estate, notably at Buckingham Terrace and Learmonth Terrace (see separate listings), both of which followed the development of Clarendon Crescent in the late 1850s and early 1860s.

(List description revised at resurvey 2012).

References

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