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Summary

Description

John McLachlan, 1890 (nos 7-9) and Peter L Henderson, 1902 (No 3 -5 and Abbotsford Bar). Two adjoining 4-storey and attic blocks. Scottish Baronial revival block to right with corner turret and pub at ground floor with Jacobean revival interior. Coursed stugged red ashlar sandstone with polished ashlar dressings. Segmental-headed windows. Cill course tat second floor.

W SECTION (NOS 7-9):. 5-bay original block, with 2 further matching bays added to W, circa 1975. Workshops for Jenners, now shop and café. Segmental arched shopfront at ground, projecting cills at 1st fllor; 2nd floor cillcourse and projecting lintel cornices; eaves course. 4 dormers; wrought-iron bracket sign. Stair bay to right with corniced door at ground and date stone. Broad 2-bay W gable with projecting central stack.

E SECTION (NO 3 AND ABBOTSFORD BAR): corner building with bar at ground and timber-panelled entrance doors to corner and outer left bay. Accommodation in upper floors. 3-bay Dutch gable to Rose Street corbelling out slightly at successive floors; segmental pediment. Recessed quadrant corner with bipartite windows and candle-snuffer roof. Macicoltaed cill course. Broad 3-bay gable to Rose Street North Lane; similarly detailed but with rectangular windows.

Plate glass in timber sash and case windows. Pedimented ashlar gablehead stacks. Ashlar coped skews. Grey slates.

INTERIOR OF PUBLIC HOUSE: Jacobean Revival decorative scheme. Timber panelled doors to lobbies; etched glass to upper panels with 'The Abbotsford' on both leaves. Elaborate compartmented ceiling with foliate decoration within decorative panels and egg and dart mouldings to cornice. Two thirds height timber panelling to walls, some panels with mirrors. Door cases with pediments or deep architraves. Central island mahogany bar counter with carved brackets and richly carved superstructure with short paired supporting columns on deep bases, arcaded and moulded cornice with balustered rail. Counter for dispensing food to rear left with timber gantry with carvings, turned decorative columns and balustered architrave rail.

Statement of Special Interest

This is a striking block with good Baronial details on a prominent corner site in the heart of Edinburgh's First New Town. The interior of the public house, which is largely unaltered, is richly decorated with much extremely fine carved timber detail in the fittings and with a good ornamental Jacobean-style ceiling. Originally it had a smoking room and lounge at the rear of the main ground floor room but when the first floor was acquired by the pub in the 1970s for a restaurant, these rooms were converted to accommodate the staircase.

The architect of the public bar and corner section, Peter L B Henderson (1848-1912), was trained as both architect and engineer and became a specialist in the design of breweries and public houses and related buildings for the licensed trade. He was in considerable demand as a designer of public houses and some of the most elaborate pub interiors in Edinburgh are from his hand.

An earlier pub called the Abbotsford Arms was situated on the opposite side of the street. This was demolished to make way for an extension to Jenners' Department store and the company employed Henderson to add a section to another of their properties which had been designed by John McLachlan in 1890 as workshops. Jenners turned to Henderson for the second block because McLachlan had died by then. John McLachlan (circa 1843-1893) had a busy Edinburgh-based practice designing a range of buildings and from 1884 was the architect to the National Bank. McLachlan's section of the building has been mis-ascribed to Henderson but Dean of Guild drawings confirm that it was McLachlan's design. Henderson used a number of the design details from the earlier building in the new block - for example in the segmental windows and the way he lined up the windows horizontally to unify the two buildings successfully.

List description updated as part of the Public Houses Thematic Study 2007-08.

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