Listed Building

The only legal part of the listing under the Planning (Listing Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 is the address/name of site. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing – see 'About Listed Buildings' below for more information. The further details below the 'Address/Name of Site' are provided for information purposes only.

Address/Name of Site

54 CANAAN LANE, WOODBURN HOUSELB26948

Status: Designated

Documents

There are no additional online documents for this record.

Summary

Category
B
Date Added
14/12/1970
Supplementary Information Updated
19/10/2020
Local Authority
Edinburgh
Planning Authority
Edinburgh
Burgh
Edinburgh
NGR
NT 24983 71154
Coordinates
324983, 671154

Description

Circa 1820. two-storey and attic rectangular-plan classical villa with single-storey wing and outbuildings to north, large modern single storey extension. Cream sandstone, ashlar front and south elevation with rusticated quoins, coursed and squared stugged rubble to rear and side. Rusticated ground floor; band course above ground floor; cill band course at first floor; deep dentilled eaves cornice with blocking course above; architraved and corniced windows at first floor; fluted panels to aprons of first floor windows; segmental-arched timber dormer windows.

West (entrance) elevation: four-bay; single storey north wing; Roman Doric porch with angle pilasters, frieze, cornice and blocking course to bay to left of centre, single windows with bracketted cills on returns, two-leaf panelled door with rectangular plate glass fanlight; single windows to first floor above. Remaining bays with single windows to ground and first floor. Two dormers above. Flat-roofed north wing with two rectangular windows set in round-arched panels.

South (garden) elevation: three-bay; central bowed bay with three windows to ground (central door later alteration) and first floor, decorative cast-iron balcony to first floor, half-conical roof and dormer window. Single windows to outer bays.

North (rear) elevation: at first floor tall stair window to left of centre; single window to right of centre. Two rubble-built single storey outbuildings with piend roofs flanking service court.

East elevation: large single storey modern extension at ground floor; at first floor blocked window to left, two single windows to right; central wallhead stack; two dormers. Timber sash and case windows, mostly four-pane, some small-pane glazing to rear, side and north wing. Slate piend roof with lead flashings; two broad transverse stacks, two roof lights to north.

Interior: not seen 1992.

Statement of Special Interest

Woodburn House is thought to have been built in 1812 (Smith), in an area known as 'the land of Canaan', which covered 65 acres from Newbattle Terrace in the north to the Jordan Burn in the south. The house does not appear on Kirkwood's map of 1817 but is shown on Pollock's map of 1834. This rural area of meadows, orchards and gardens was the largest of the estates on which Morningside was gradually to develop.

Woodburn House was built at a cost of £300 for William Baillie, Writer to the Signet. It was then occupied from 1816-60 by George Ross, an advocate, who was a great benefactor, and for a long time the sole supporter, of the Old Schoolhouse in Morningside Road.

Woodburn was established as a sanatorium (for the treatment of tuberculosis) in 1889 by Dr Isabella Mears and her husband DR W.P. Mears. A purpose-built sanatorium was erected to the north of the main house in 1899-1900 (Historic Hospitals).

A pioneer in medicine, Isabella Mears was the 25th female doctor on the General Medical Register and prior to her work at Woodburn Sanatorium, had been a medical missionary in China (British Medical Journal). She studied Medicine at Edinburgh University but had to take her final exams in Dublin, as at that time Universities in Britain did not allow women to do so (Historic Hospitals).

Woodburn Sanatorium is thought to be one of the first sanatoria in the UK (British Medical Journal, 1936). Mears was a pioneer of open-air treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis and Woodburn was a very early example of this type of treatment in Scotland (Historic Hospitals, Horowitz Murray and Stark).

For some years after 1914 Woodburn House was the residence of her son, Sir Frank Mears, the noted architect and town planner.

From 1922 until 1966, the building was used as a Royal Infirmary nurses' home and later became a part of the Astley Ainslie Hospital.

Description and Summary of Special Interest updated with additional information (2020).

References

Bibliography

Kirkwood, R. Plan of the City of Edinburgh and its environs. Edinburgh (1817).

Gray's Directory map (1833).

Johnston, W. & A.K. Pollock's plan of Edinburgh, Leith & suburbs. Edinburgh (1834).

Ordnance Survey map (surveyed 1852, published 1855) Edinburghshire Sheet 6 (includes: Edinburgh; Lasswade) 6 inches to the mile. 1st Edition. Southampton: Ordnance Survey.

Ordnance Survey map (surveyed 1877, published 1885) Edinburghshire Sheet 6 (includes: Edinburgh; Lasswade) 6 inches to the mile. 1st Edition. Southampton: Ordnance Survey.

Ordnance Survey map (surveyed 1893, published 1896) Edinburghshire III.15 (Edinburgh) 25 inches to the mile. 2nd and later Editions. Southampton: Ordnance Survey.

Ordnance Survey map (surveyed 1905-06, published 1908) Edinburghshire III.15 (Edinburgh) 25 inches to the mile. 2nd and later Editions. Southampton: Ordnance Survey.

Ordnance Survey map (surveyed 1932, published 1933) Edinburghshire III.15 (Edinburgh) 25 inches to the mile. 2nd and later Editions. Southampton: Ordnance Survey.

Smith, C. J. Smith (1999) Morningside Edinburgh, pp. 117-18.

British Medical Journal, 21 November 1936, p. 1063.

https://www.bmj.com/content/2/3959/1063.3 [accessed 16.10.2020]

Canmore, Woodburn House

https://canmore.org.uk/site/52694/edinburgh-morningside-54-canaan-lane-woodburn-house [accessed 16.10.2020]

Horowitz Murray, J. and Stark, M. (eds.) (2017) Article II – Some Present Day Scotswomen in Volume 39 of Routledge Library Editions: The Englishwoman's Review of Social and Industrial Questions: 1907-1908, London: Routledge.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=3vDiDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT37&lpg=PT37&dq=dr+isabella+mears+edinburgh&source=bl&ots=4ocKinyd-r&sig=ACfU3U1jhPO_PldVViaMUceD1Bp5Wihu6Q&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwitxc_VprnsAhVMeMAKHYcfA-YQ6AEwEnoECAgQAg#v=onepage&q=dr%20isabella%20mears%20edinburgh&f=false [accessed 16.10.2020]

Scran, Woodburn House, Ceiling Cornice

https://www.scran.ac.uk/database/record.php?usi=000-299-990-571-C&scache=16ntr2roqm&searchdb=scran [accessed 16.10.2020]

Scran, Woodburn House, Nurses' Home

https://www.scran.ac.uk/database/record.php?usi=000-000-092-914-C&scache=4akah2roqv&searchdb=scran [accessed 16.10.2020]

About Listed Buildings

Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.

We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.

Listing is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for buildings of special architectural or historic interest as set out in the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997.

We list buildings which are found to be of special architectural or historic interest using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)

Listed building records provide an indication of the special architectural or historic interest of the listed building which has been identified by its statutory address. The description and additional information provided are supplementary and have no legal weight.

These records are not definitive historical accounts or a complete description of the building(s). If part of a building is not described it does not mean it is not listed. The format of the listed building record has changed over time. Earlier records may be brief and some information will not have been recorded.

The legal part of the listing is the address/name of site which is known as the statutory address. Other than the name or address of a listed building, further details are provided for information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland does not accept any liability for any loss or damage suffered as a consequence of inaccuracies in the information provided. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing. Even if a number or name is missing from a listing address it will still be listed. Listing covers both the exterior and the interior and any object or structure fixed to the building. Listing also applies to buildings or structures not physically attached but which are part of the curtilage (or land) of the listed building as long as they were erected before 1 July 1948.

While Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating listed buildings, the planning authority is responsible for determining what is covered by the listing, including what is listed through curtilage. However, for listed buildings designated or for listings amended from 1 October 2015, legal exclusions to the listing may apply.

If part of a building is not listed, it will say that it is excluded in the statutory address and in the statement of special interest in the listed building record. The statement will use the word 'excluding' and quote the relevant section of the 1997 Act. Some earlier listed building records may use the word 'excluding', but if the Act is not quoted, the record has not been revised to reflect subsequent legislation.

Listed building consent is required for changes to a listed building which affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest. The relevant planning authority is the point of contact for applications for listed building consent.

Find out more about listing and our other designations at www.historicenvironment.scot/advice-and-support. You can contact us on 0131 668 8914 or at designations@hes.scot.

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