Description
John Chesser, 1880s. Classical tenement on corner site; 4-storey and basement, 4-bay (5-bay to ground floor) near-symmetrical elevation to Hillside Crescent; 4-storey and basement, 5-bay elevation to Hillside Street. Polished ashlar; rendered basement; coursed rubble with dressed margins to rear. Dividing band between basement and ground floor; dividing band between ground and 1st floor; moulded cill course to 1st floor; cill band to 2nd floor; cill band to 3rd floor; eaves cornice; blocking course. Predominantly regular fenestration; architraves to ground (Wellington Street elevation only), 1st, 2nd and 3rd floor windows; aprons to windows to 1st floor.
SW (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: to 4th bay from left to ground floor, timber-panelled door with letterbox fanlight, framed by doorpiece of 2 engaged fluted Greek Doric columns supporting entablature and pediment breaking 1st floor cill course. To 2nd and 6th bay from left, timber-panelled door with letterbox fanlight, framed by Greek Doric pilasters with slightly projecting entablature above. To ground floor windows; extended cills to windows flanking central doorway, recessed surrounds and aprons to remainder. Modillioned cornice below 3rd floor cill course.
NW (WELLINGTON STREET) ELEVATION: to far left, 4-storey and basement canted bay; tripartite windows with stop-chamfered mullions. Blind windows to far right bay. Corniced 1st floor windows. Returned modillioned cornice below 3rd floor cill course to far right.
GLAZING etc: plate glass in timber sash and case windows. Double-pitched roof; graded grey slates; stone skews and skewputts. To Hillside Crescent elevation, 1 mutual ridge stack to far right, 1 ridge stack to centre, 1 ridge stack to right, both stacks corniced ashlar with predominantly octagonal cans. To Wellington Street elevation, 1 shouldered wallhead stack to right, 1 ridge stack to centre, 1 gablehead stack to far left; all stacks corniced and rendered with circular cans.
Statement of Special Interest
Part of the Calton A-Group.
The block comprising 15 Hillside Crescent and 30 and 32 Hillside Street forms part of the Eastern New Town (or Calton) scheme, which was originally laid out by W. H Playfair (see below). This block was designed by John Chesser who was involved, during the 1880s, with the completion of several of the streets which Playfair planned. Chesser reworked and simplified some of Playfair's designs for the streets that had already been partly built, and designed the remainder of the streets in a more contemporary style. The block comprising 15 Hillside Crescent and 30 and 32 Hillside Street is important due to its continuation of the street plan and elements of the Greek Revival style which are characteristic of the relatively few buildings of the scheme that were actually constructed to Playfair's designs.
The origins of the Eastern New Town, which was to occupy the east end of Calton Hill and lands to the north of it on the ground between Easter Road and Leith Walk, lie in a 'joint plan for building' which three principal feuars (Heriot's Hospital, Trinity Hospital and Mr Allan of Hillside) entered into in 1811. In 1812 a competition was advertised for plans for laying out the grounds in question. Thirty-two plans were received, displayed and reported on by a variety of people, including eight architects. Eventually, it was decided that none of the plans was suitable. However, it was a more general report by William Stark (who died shortly after submitting it) which caught the attention of the Commissioners and formed the basis of the final scheme. Stark's central argument stressed the importance of planning around the natural contours and features of the land rather than imposing formal, symmetrical street plans upon it. After several years of little or no progress, in 1818 the Commissioners finally selected William Henry Playfair, Stark's former pupil, to plan a scheme following his master's Picturesque ideals.
The resulting scheme, presented to the Commissioners in 1819, preserved the view of and from Calton Hill by the creation of a limited triangular development of three single-sided terraces on the hill itself. These looked over a huge radial street pattern, centred on the gardens of Hillside Crescent, on the land to the north. The feuing of these lower lands started well, with Elm Row, Leopold Place and the west side of Hillside Crescent being built fairly swiftly. However, demand for the feus faltered severely, due to the growing popularity of new properties being built to the west of the New Town. The fate of the Calton scheme was sealed in 1838, when it was decided that feuars should pay poor-rates to both Edinburgh and Leith. This virtually halted development for the next thirty years. Hillside Crescent also had particular problems with subsidence, which further exacerbated the lack of interest in the scheme. The result of all these problems was that very little of Playfair's original scheme was ever built. When building resumed in the late 1870s, some of Playfair's original street lines were adhered to, as was the case with Hillside Crescent, and in others such as Brunton Place, Brunswick Street, Hillside Street (originally to be a longer street called Hopeton Street), and Wellington Street (also curtailed). However, due to piecemeal residential, industrial and transport developments immediately to the north, it would have been impossible to further follow Playfair's original layout, even if this had been considered desirable.
When completing Hillside Crescent in the 1880s, John Chesser did not follow Playfair's original elevations. Instead, he chose to base his design on a simplified and cruder version of 4-9 Brunton Place, the only section of Brunton Place which was built to Playfair's designs.