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Summary

Description

William Urquhart, 1873. 4-storey, bowed, Scots Baronial corner tenement block with finialled, gabled eaves breaking dormers and extensive public house and shops to ground; 5 bays to Forrest Road, 7 bays to Teviot Place with pavilion-roofed bay with tripartite mullioned windows central bow. Squared and snecked stugged sandstone with polished dressings. Continuous cornice at ground floor (removed at No 22 Teviot Place); corbel table to 3rd floor. Windows in stop-chamfered, tabbed surrounds; finialled, kneelered dormer heads to 3rd floor windows breaking eaves.

W (FORREST ROAD) ELEVATION: shop to outer left: segmental-arched openings; 2-leaf timber panelled storm door in lugged architrave with dentilled cornice, small-pane glazed fanlight above; piend-roofed 3-storey canted bay to left above; timber panelled door with segmental-arched fanlight to right, with single windows above. Projecting 3-bay section to right, bowed to outer right, with conical-roofed bartizan at canted corner to left; Art Deco stained glass to shop window to left; modern glazing and doors to public house; corbelled wallhead stack between 1st and 2nd bays to left. Plain, pavilion-roofed single bay to bow with tripartite windows and consoled cornice with ball-finialled pierced parapet to ground floor.

S (TEVIOT PLACE) ELEVATION: regularly fenestrated with single and bipartite windows.

Predominantly plate glass in timber sash and case windows, some modern uPVC replacements. Double pitch slate roof. Corniced end and wallhead stacks with circular cans.

Statement of Special Interest

Prominently sited corner tenement block with sweeping bowed corner and extensive public house to ground floor making strong contribution to the streetscape. Finely detailed particularly in the parapet and dormers, this tenement is a well-planned block in an important position creating the character of broad urban area opposite the Meadows Park.

This tenement is the only known work attributed to the architect William Urquhart about whom little is known. He practised at Royal Exchange Buildings, 297 High Street from about 1871 to about 1874. Thereafter he appear to have practised from his home address which was 4 Morningside Park.

The buildings were constructed as part of the Forrest Road, Teviot Place and Bristo Place development concurrent with the building of the New Medical School and the McEwan Hall in the later 19th century. The former Royal Infirmary was built around the same time as the redevelopment of Teviot Place so some of the shops on Teviot Place traded in medical equipment, books and clothing for the hospital and medical staff. The tradition is ongoing with some premises continuing to trade medical learning products (2011).

The planned street triangle of Forrest Road, Bristo Place and Teviot Row was conceived as part of Thomas Hamilton's (1784-1858) vision for the new Southern Approach Road linking Princes Street to George Square and the Meadows (via the Mound, Bank Street and a the new George IV Bridge). The City Improvement Act brought in by Lord Provost Chambers in 1867 was to implement better housing standards and to replace the medieval slum areas in Edinburgh's Old Town. The groups of Baronial style tenement blocks on Forest Road and Teviot Place were built as a direct result of this development phase.

List description updated at re-survey 2011-12.

Statutory address updated (2015). Previously listed as '26-32 (even nos) Forrest Road and 19-21 (inclusive nos) Teviot Place'.

References

Bibliography

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