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Summary

Description

W.H. Playfair designed 1821, built by William Cullen, 1825. 3-storey basement and attic (6 bays to Blenheim Place, 5 bays facing Leith Walk, 5 bays to E elevation) classical, curved corner tenement block with 2-storey tetrastyle Ionic portico to E; 2-storey quadrant colonnade facing Leith Walk. Polished ashlar (painted droved ashlar to basement, painted to ground floor, coursed squared rubble to rear). Dividing band between ground and 1st floor; dividing band course and dentilled main cornice between 2nd and attic floor; eaves cornice and blocking cornice. Giant pilasters dividing bays to 1st floor; pilaster-strips dividing bays to attic floor. Round-arched openings to ground floor; regular fenestration.

NW (LEITH WALK) ELEVATION: slightly recessed curved elevation; polished cladding to ground floor; steps to 2-leaf timber-panelled door with segmental fanlight above, flanked by 2 windows to left and right; giant Ionic columns dividing bays at 1st floor. Narrow advanced section to far right with door at ground floor.

N ELEVATION: to far left, additional bay to basement and ground floor. Steps to 2 platts overarching basement recess, leading to 2 doors with segmental teardrop fanlights, both flanked to right by window with similar fanlight; 2 windows to far right.

E ELEVATION: 2-bay section to left. 3-bay section to right (ground floor obscured by adjoining building) with giant Ionic columns at 1st floor supporting pediment; blind windows to centre bay; blank wall to attic floor behind pediment. 3 cast-iron balconnettes to 2nd floor windows (2 to left bays, 1 to outer right bay).

S (REAR) ELEVATION: 3-bay elevation (to right, recessed 4th bay to basement and ground floor only.). To right bay, blind windows to 2nd and attic floors. Some windows at basement and ground floor altered or blocked up.

GLAZING etc: predominantly 12-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows; plate-glass in timber sash and case windows to attic floor; predominantly modern glazing to ground floor. Double-piend roof, curved to N; graded grey slates. Corniced rendered ridge stack with circular cans to right of N elevation; stone wallhead stack with circular cans to E elevation; 2 corniced rubble wallhead stacks to rear.

RAILINGS: cast iron railings, gates and balcony surrounding basement area to N elevation; circular design with spear-headed dog bars.

Statement of Special Interest

The impressive curved Ionic quadrant of Blenheim Place, in conjunction with its Doric counterpart on the other side of the road at Leopold Place, forms one of the architectural set-pieces of Playfair's Calton scheme, set on a commanding corner site framing the Eastern exit and entry to the city via the then newly built London Road. It is important for its streetscape value, as an example of the work of one of Scotland's leading early 19th century architects, and as a significant element of the Eastern New Town scheme. The railings are important as their design is a distinctive element which Playfair repeated in large areas of the Calton scheme.

Designed and built as of high quality private housing, the majority of the block retains its original residential use, although the ground floor now houses a shop and a bank. Blenheim Place is one of the most prestigious elements of the Calton Scheme for an Eastern New Town. The origins of this new town, which was to occupy the east end of Calton Hill and lands to the north of it on the ground between Easter Road and Leith Walk, lie in a 'joint plan for building' which three principal feuars (Heriot's Hospital, Trinity Hospital and Mr Allan of Hillside) entered into in 1811. In 1812 a competition was advertised for plans for laying out the grounds in question. Thirty-two plans were received, displayed and reported on by a variety of people, including eight architects. Eventually, it was decided that none of the plans was suitable. However, it was a more general report by William Stark (who died shortly after submitting it) which caught the attention of the Commissioners and formed the basis of the final scheme. Stark's central arguement stressed the importance of planning around the natural contours and features of the land rather than imposing formal, symmetrical street plans upon it. After several years of little or no progress, in 1818 the Commissioners finally selected William Henry Playfair, a former pupil of Stark's, to plan a scheme following his master's Picturesque ideals.

The resulting scheme, presented to the Commissioners in 1819, preserved the view of and from Calton Hill by the creation of a limited development of three single sided terraces on the hill itself, and a huge radial street pattern on the land to the north. However, feuing of this lower land was slow, for a variety of reasons, and very little of Playfair's original vast scheme was built as intended.

References

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