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Summary

Description

Office of Sir Robert Rowand Anderson, or a former assistant (see Notes), dated 1890. Single-storey and attic symmetrical pair of piend-roofed semi-detached villas with canted bay windows and finialled pedimented dormers to front; front doors, tall staircase windows and shouldered wallhead stacks to sides; swept dormers and later scullery outshots to rear. Squared and snecked sandstone with red sandstone ashlar dressings. Long and short quoins. Symmetrical fenestration; tabbed window dressings. Timber panelled front doors with original brass handles in roll-moulded architraves. Tiled lobbies with half-glazed timber panelled inner doors.

N (FRONT) ELEVATION: large canted windows to outer bays at ground; pedimented dormers above (segmental pediment with fleur-de-lys finial to left; triangular pediment with ball-finial to right) with date, 1890, inscribed in pediments. Paired windows at ground to centre; bipartite dormers above with open pediments and obelisk finials.

Predominantly 12-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows. Corniced shouldered stacks with some red clay cans. Graded grey slate with red terracotta ridge tiles. Cast-iron down-pipes with decorative hoppers and wall brackets.

BOUNDARY WALL: coped random rubble boundary wall with ashlar gate piers.

Statement of Special Interest

B-Group with 3 and 5 Woodhall Road. An attractive pair of semi-detached villas in a prominent position on Woodhall Road. This pair, and the pair next door at 3 and 5 Woodhall Road were developed by Sir Robert Rowand Anderson in the early 1890s. Unfortunately the architect of these houses is unknown. It is unlikely that Anderson, then at the height of his career, and the most eminent architect in Edinburgh, would have designed these houses himself; it is much more likely that they were designed by one of his pupils or assistants. In 1890 George Mackie Watson was Anderson's Principal Assistant, Robert Lorimer, James Jerdan, Victor Horsburgh and John J Joass were his other assistants, and his pupils were A L McGibbon and Frank W Deas. It is also possible that Anderson gave the work to one of his former assistants or pupils, as he is known to have done this with two pairs of semi-detached villas that he had built at 3-7 Thorburn Road (not listed), which were designed by Victor Horsburgh or Frank Deas.

Sir Robert Rowand Anderson was largely responsible for the development of this part of Colinton as a fashionable suburb, as he was one of the first and principal feuers of land from James Gillespie's Hospital. In about 1875 he had built a double villa at 11-13 Woodhall road, and in 1879 he built his own house Allermuir at 15 Woodhall Road, and another large house, 2 Barnshot Road, next door. During the next twenty to thirty years, he built numerous other houses in the area, particularly at the Northern end of Barnshot Road, and along Woodhall Road (see list descriptions for these streets). A quick inspection of the Sasine records suggests that he may have acquired even more feus towards the Western end of Woodhall road. It was by no means unusual for architects of this period to act as property developers, but this aspect of Anderson's activities has been largely ignored by his biographers. These villas are therefore an important testament to this little-known aspect of his work. There is a modern garage attached to the side of number 5.

References

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