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Summary

Description

J Russell Walker, 1884-6. 5-storey and attic 3-bay tenement with Scottish 17th century revival detailing, stepped with slope of street. Coursed stugged cream sandstone with polished dressings (painted to ground). Moulded string courses between 1st and 2nd and between 4th and attic floors; cill courses to 2nd and 4th floors. Windows in roll-moulded surrounds. Timber panelled door in ogee-arched roll-moulded stop-chamfered surround with thistle carving in arch-head and finialled hoodmould with carved labelstops to outer left; paired small windows above. Shops to centre and right; 2 windows at 1st floor; windows grouped 2:1 above; scrolled shaped dormerheads, that to left with ball filial and circular panel in gable.

4-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows. Chamfered corniced stacks with circular cans at wallhead to outer left, ridge to right. Grey slates.

Statement of Special Interest

Identical gables at Nos 2 and 4 West Bow provide a link in an otherwise irregular terrace. Until after the 1827 Improvement Act West Bow was a steep Z-shaped street which climbed from the Grassmarket to Upper Bow at the foot of Castlehill. Most of the old buildings in West and Upper Bow were swept away to make room for the northern side of Victoria Street, built to link the Grassmarket with the new George IV Bridge. Before their demolition, Thomas Hamilton, the architect for the scheme, made careful elevational drawings of the buildings. The old houses on this site survived until 1878; they are described in Grant's OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH and illustrated in Shepherd's MODERN ATHENS, and in MacGibbon and Ross.

References

Bibliography

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