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Summary

Description

Late 18th or early 19th century. Symmetrical, 2-storey and attic 3-bay villa with later (19th century) single storey wing and conservatory to E. Coursed rubble with contrasting ashlar margins. Entrance (S) elevation with central Doric-columned corniced doorpiece with ornamental frieze. 6-panel timber door with fanlight above. Central 2-window wallhead gable with stack, flanking piended dormers.

Timber-framed conservatory to E with working metal window-opening mechanism.

Predominantly 12-pane timber sash and case windows; 6-pane casements to attic. Graded grey slates, raised skews. Gable stacks.

INTERIOR: (seen 2007). Original room plan largely extant. Some simple decorative cornicing. Narrow, stone spiral staircase.

BOUNDARY WALL AND GATEPIERS: tall, coped rubble wall with pair of sandstone gatepiers to S with plinths, moulded capstones and with ball finials.

Statement of Special Interest

This is a good example of a little externally altered, late 18th /early 19th century house. The house is symmetrical and well-proportioned, with a distinctive central 2-window gable and a later, mid-19th century decorative doorpiece. The glazing pattern, window openings and ashlar margins have largely been retained, both to the front and rear of the property and these add to the character of the house. The conservatory, unusually, retains its working metal mechanism for opening and shutting the windows. The original room plan of the house is largely intact, with an interesting stone spiral staircase.

In the late 18th century, this area of Abbeyhill contained lands held by Baron Norton, a Baron of the Scottish Exchequer, under the ownership of the Earl of Moray. A plan of 1801 marks out various plots within this feu in which pencil drawings seem to suggest where other houses could be built. St Ann's Bank is not named, but seems to be depicted on the map without the extension to the East. The John Ainslie Map of 1804 apparently depicts the house as belonging to Lord Chief Baron Montgomery. By the 1st Edition Survey Map of 1849, the house is named St Ann's Bank House and takes on its present footprint.

Local knowledge suggests that the core of the house dates back to the early 18th century and that it was originally a farmhouse.

List description revised as part of Edinburgh Holyrood Ward resurvey 2007-08.

References

Bibliography

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