Description

Hippolyte Jean Blanc and James Gordon, 1887. Asymmetrical Franco-Scottish Renaissance office building with conical roofed drum at S corner. 3-storey L-plan, with single storey office and toilets to rear in re-entrant angle; ashlar front to Slateford Road elevation with channelled ground floor and pitched roof; SW range 2-storey and attic, built-up on falling ground, squared and snecked rubble with ashlar margins and mansard attic; base course. PRINCIPAL SE (SLATEFORD ROAD) ELEVATION: architraved margins throughout, cornice course above ground, moulded cill course at 2nd floor, long and short quoins at angles. Regular fenestration. Pedimented and fluted pilaster doorcase, with 6-panelled door with fanlight in moulded round-headed surround. Above, pedimented window at 1st floor; to left, ogee-roofed circular stair turret rising from porch in re-entrant angle of drum. To left of porch 3-bay drum, windows to each bay of each floor; ground floor windows with plain fuscia above, 1st floor windows with cornice and key-stone, 2nd floor facsia and dentilled cornice with panelled frieze. 2 bays to right of porch; 1st bay with tripartite at ground; outer bay set back, with door and fanlight at ground, and narrow light to left, bipartite window to 1st floor and blind oculus and segmental pediment above 2nd floor; 1st floor windows pedimented. Central 2 bays with cornice and low parapet.

SW ELEVATION: 4-bay. Tall narrow gablehead with stack to outer right, above eaves of lower bays to left; date panel with Bernard brothers initials, segmental pediment and apron. 3 bays to left with windows (with relieving arches) to each floor, stop-chamfered arrises; 2 central bays with bipartite windwos at ground. 1st floor with band course and cornice. Gabled ashlar dormers to mansard roof with alternate griangular and segmental pediments, linked by waved and coped parapet. Single storey link beyond (at basement level) with window and door giving access to office. Plate glass glazing to timber sash and case windows, small-panes to upper sashes at ground. Steeply pitched roof to roadside block, finials to towers; corniced ashlar gablehead stacks, grey slates, ashlar coped skews. Cast-iron downpipes; decorative rainwater heads with entwined of Beranrd brothers, dated 1887.

INTERIOR: mahogany vestibule with carved panelling, slightly altered. Glazed door to large general office with relieving arches and consoles; now divided into three laboratories, but all details remain. Woodwork painted white but seems to be mahogany underneath. Offices to SE and NW with rich plaster cornices but fireplaces removed. That to NW with carved relieving arch to window. In far N corner a safe room lined with white ceramic tiles. Upstairs, main staircase between 1st and 2nd floors removed. Decorative cornice to old bowed Drawing room; fireplace removed.

Statement of Interest

Built for Daniel and John Bernard. The brewery had been established on the site in 1885. The property originally had a substantial 5 bedroom house on the upper floors (with entrance by door to right at ground), and luncheon room, kitchen, &c for the staff. It was heavily stone-cleaned in 1992. To the N the maltings survive in a much altered form, and are still used by the North British Distillery.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17806008

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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