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Summary

Description

John Chesser, 1869-1876. 2-storey and attic terrace of 2-bay houses with canted, mansard attic bays. Polished, channelled sandstone ashlar with polished dressings. Base course; band course at ground, corniced at canted bay; string course; banded eaves course; cornice. Elaborately foliated consoled cornice to doorpieces comprising panelled timber door (sometimes 2-leaf) with fanlight and margin-paned surround; block cill and consoled cornice to margins to window above doorpiece; round-headed, finialled, keystoned timber-framed dormer at roof above; tripartite dormer to polygonal mansard roof of canted bay, comprising smaller, round-headed, finialled, keystoned dormers flanking central dormer, detailed as above; coped skews.

W (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: alternate pairs of houses slightly advanced (Nos 1 and 2, 5 and 6, 9 and 10); doorpiece to bay to right at ground; single window to bay above; 3-light canted bays at ground and 1st floors, bay to left; No 1 same as other Nos, with bay disposition reversed: entrance bay to left, canted bay to right.

N (SIDE) ELEVATION (NO 45 COATES GARDENS): 3-bay; canted bay to centre at ground and 1st floors; polygonal mansard roof above, with dormers, detailed as above; blocked window at ground and, with consoled cornice, to 1st floor above; blocked round-headed window to skewed gable above; bay to left advanced at ground, with pair of margin-framed windows; single window above with consoled cornice; single dormer, detailed as above, at roof. Single storey, pitch-roofed addition adjoining at left, hidden behind boundary wall (see below).

Principally 2-pane timber sash and case glazing. Grey slate roof; fish-scale tiling to mansards; coped, channelled sandstone ashlar mutual and gablehead stacks with tall cans, predominantly original, moulded octagonal; cast-iron rainwater goods.

BOUNDARY WALLS: low coped sandstone boundary walls to street, with cross-pattern iron railings to some Nos. Extended single storey sandstone wall, with boarded door towards right and entrance gate at left, linking No 45 Coates Gardens with No 43.

Statement of Special Interest

Part of New Town A-Group. John Chesser was the Superintendent of Works to George Heriot's Hospital between 1858 and 1889. During his term of office large quantities of Heriot's land were feued, including land in the W of Edinburgh. Chesser was responsible for preparing ground and elevation plans for the new buildings. Opulent interiors were designed for many of the houses. Magdala Crescent was built the year after the British Empire captured the capital of Abyssinia, Magdala, hence its name.

References

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