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Summary

Description

George Beattie and Sons, 1885. Classical, near-symmetrical wedge-plan building with steep mansard roof on sloping corner site; 4-storey and attic; 5-bay principal corner elevation; 4-bay elevation to Elm Row; 4-bay elevation to Montgomery Street. Polished ashlar (predominantly out-of-character cladding to ground floor; coursed squared rubble with dressed margins to rear). Slightly projecting shops with cornice and blocking course to ground floor; cill course to 3rd floor. Predominantly regular fenestration; modern shopfronts to ground floor; architraved windows to 1st, 2nd and 3rd floor (not to canted bays); segmental-headed dormers.

SW (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: 3-bay slightly bowed section to centre, flanked to left and right by canted single bays on return to Elm Row and Montgomery Street; to centre, canted bay window from 1st to 3rd floors. Dividing band between 1st and 2nd floors; cill course to 1st and 2nd floors; cornice between 2nd and 3rd floors and between 3rd and attic floors; parapet with base course and cornice. To outer left and right bays, flanking channelled pilasters to 1st and 2nd floors; panelled pilasters to 3rd floor. To attic floor: to central bay, tripartite window with pilastered mullions, clasped in wallhead stacks with continuous cornice, surmounted by ornate panel and segmental pediment; dormer windows breaking parapet to outer right and left bays.

NW (ELM ROW) ELEVATION: to 3rd bay from left, canted bay window from 1st to 3rd floor. Corniced windows to 1st and 2nd floors (excluding canted bay); dividing bands between 1st and 2nd floors and 2nd and 3rd floors to canted bay. Eaves cornice; blocking course to canted bay. To attic, dormers to 1st 2nd and 4th bays from left; to 3rd bay from left, tripartite window with extended cill course clasped between wallhead stacks.

SE (MONTGOMERY STREET) ELEVATION: to ground floor, between 2nd and 3rd bays, timber-panelled door with letterbox fanlight and architraved doorpiece with keystone; to 3rd bay from left, canted bay window from 1st to 3rd floor. Corniced windows to 1st and 2nd floors (excluding canted bay); dividing bands between 1st and 2nd floors and 2nd and 3rd floors to canted bay. Eaves cornice; blocking course to canted bay. To attic, dormers to 1st, 2nd and 4th bays from left; to 3rd bay from left, tripartite window with extended cill course clasped between wallhead stacks.

Statement of Special Interest

The block comprising 25-29 Elm Row and 1-5 Montgomery Street is an example of good quality tenement architecture which makes and important contribution to the streetscape, due to its prominent corner position and the way in which its splayed corner elevation effectively acknowledges that of Playfair's Elm Row design opposite.

The block comprising 25-29 Elm Row and 1-5 Montgomery Street was built for Mr Robert Kinnear, on land which had previously had a smaller building on it, adjacent to a coach works. The construction of this tenement formed part of a wider trend of prolific tenement building in the area between Leith Walk and Easter Road during the last 3 decades of the 19th century. This area had originally been earmarked for one vast single development in the, a scheme known as the Eastern New Town or Calton Scheme, laid out and designed by W. H Playfair in the 1810s and 20s. The scheme would have been the largest and most ambitious New Town in Edinburgh, but despite an encouraging beginning the area quickly waned in popularity, mainly due to competition from new schemes in the increasingly fashionable West End. Resultantly, only the southern portion of Elm Row was built according to Playfair's designs. The land to north became largely occupied by industrial buildings. In the late nineteenth century, the northern section of Elm Row was redeveloped for residential use with construction of a row of tenements with shops to ground floor.

Elm Row was named after the double row of elm trees which once extended 600 feet down Leith Walk. Playfair's plan retained the trees, but they have subsequently been removed.

References

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