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Summary

Description

Dated 1805 and 1806, later conversion to residential dwellings, 1973 by Philip Cocker and Partners. Four- and five-storey former mill building composed of two offset rectangular-plan blocks with feature roundel windows, set into riverbank with basements storeys to Water of Leith at south elevation. Coursed random rubble with some droved ashlar quoins, cills lintels and rybats.

West (Dean Path) Elevation: pair of three-bay gable ends, advanced to right (south) with single bay in re-entrant angle. Roughly regular fenestration, with roundel windows to gable head; further roundel windows at ground, first and second floors to south block with decorative carved wheatsheaf roundel panel at third floor, dated 1805-1806.

North (West Mill Lane) Elevation: five storeys, six bays. Regular fenestration composed of rectangular windows in plain surrounds.

South (Water of Leith) Elevation: five storeys with twin sluice arched basement to river; roughly six bays. Regular fenestration with blind roundels to centre; later roof-lights.

East Elevation: similar to west elevation, but gable to right (north) break-fronted with advanced terminal bay to far right (north). Roughly regular fenestration.

Predominantly plate glass pivoting windows, with some later roof-lights. Pitched roof; grey slates. Coped gablehead stacks. Cast iron rainwater goods.

Interior converted to residential apartments in 1973.

Statement of Special Interest

West Mill is a large former mill building situated at the heart of the Dean Village and on a site occupied by mills since the 1573. The mill is one of few surviving examples in the Dean Village of its former industrial heritage, particularly based on grain milling, many of which utilised power provided by the Water of Leith.

The mills, including those on the site of West Mill, were originally owned by the City of Edinburgh before being sold to the Baxter's Incorporation in 1734-5. The Incorporation rebuilt a number of the mills in the area, including West Mill in 1805-6. Their symbol of a wheatsheaf is included, along with the date, in a carved roundel panel to the west (Dean Path) elevation. The roundel panel also records the names of the Deacon and other officers of the Incorporation at the time that West Mill was built. The interior was originally composed of timber floors on cast-iron columns. The two breastshot wheels, 18 feet in diameter and 12 feet wide were dismantled in 1937.

The mill had been closed by the City of Edinburgh Council in 1891, following their purchase of the site, as part of a programme to clean up the river. The buildings were used briefly as a warehouse before being converted to residential flats and remodelled internally by Philip Cocker and Partners in 1972 -3.

List description revised as part of resurvey in 2009. Statutory address revised in 2021. Previously listed as '24 Dean Path and West Mill Lane, West Mill'.

References

Bibliography

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