Description

David Clunas (adapting a design by David Cousin and John Lessels - see Notes). 1870-71. 4-storey and attic, 4 bay, retail and residential tenement situated on prominent corner site forming part of an integrated run on E side of Blackfriars Street. Squared, coursed rubble with stugged sandstone dressings. Chamfered window margins. Shops to ground; 2-leaf timber door to canted SW angle bay, corbelled out over door. Above, projecting ashlar corbelled canted bay rising to corbelled oriel window at 2nd floor. Moulded cill course at 3rd storey. Irregular arrangement of dormers breaking eaves; 2 with 2-storey wall head gables, the second with lugged, crow-stepped pediment dormers. Timber, pedimented attic dormers above, set within pitch of roof. Broad crow-stepped gable to S elevation with further 2-storey wall head gable to right.

4-pane glazing to timber sash and case windows. Graded, grey Scottish slate. Broad coped ashlar stacks; clay cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

Statement of Interest

Nos 23-29 Blackfriars Street is a good example of early City Improvement Act construction and integrated tenement design. These tenements run the length of the E side of Blackfriars Street. The canted and corbelled-out corner bay with oriel window at second floor is prominently sited, providing streetscape interest. The steep pitches and variations of composition at attic and dormer level reflect the diversified roof-lines of the Canongate and Old Town in general and also provide streetscape interest. The interest of the individual tenements is greatly increased by their group value as a significant part of the Old Town's evolution in the 2nd half of the 19th century.

John Lessels (1809-1883), who came from a family of successful Edinburgh builder-architects, was appointed joint architect to the City Improvement Trust in 1866 along with David Cousin, the City Architect. In response to the Improvement Act of 1867, they laid out plans for St Mary Street, Blackfriars Street, Jeffrey Street and Chambers Street. The architecture 'reflected Cousin's transition from pure Italian Renaissance to a mid Victorian freestyle also evident in his later bank-houses' (Dictionary of Scottish Architects). David Clunas, famed for his early experiments with mass-concrete construction, adapted this block and also No 11-15 (see separate listing), following Cousin and Lessels' designs.

Formerly known as Blackfriars Wynd, the E side was demolished in 1867 under the Improvement Act, the roadway widened and subsequently renamed Blackfriars Street as part of the first wave of sanitary improvements within the Old Town. Throughout the 19th Century the Old Town's prosperity declined as large sections of the nobility and middle classes moved out of the area in favour of the grandeur and improved facilities of Edinburgh's New Town. The Improvement Act of 1867 made efforts to address this, responding early on with large-scale slum clearance and redevelopment of entire street frontages. The Act involved the large-scale clearance, on health grounds, of 34 selected areas of the Old Town. The new buildings were intended for workers and artisans.

Part of B-Group comprising 1-67 (Odd Nos) Blackfriars Street (see separate listings). Category changed from C(S) to B (1992). List description revised as part of Edinburgh Holyrood Ward Resurvey (2007/08).

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17793500

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

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  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper
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  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
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  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)