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Summary

Description

William H Playfair, designed 1825; built from 1825. Classical, near-symmetrical, 3-storey, basement and attic, corner block. Polished ashlar; droved ashlar (painted to Windsor Street elevation) to basement; predominantly rendered to attic floor and SW gable; squared coursed rubble with dressed margins to rear. Base course; band course dividing basement and ground floor; cill course (defaced) to 1st and 2nd floors; band course and main cornice dividing 2nd and attic floors; eaves cornice and blocking course. Regular fenestration; sunken panelled aprons to ground floor windows; architraves (some defaced) to ground, 1st and 2nd floors to Windsor Street elevation.

NW (WINDSOR STREET) ELEVATION: 5-bay elevation. To ground floor, to centre bay, platt overarching basement recess leading to timber-panelled door with distinctive 5-light letterbox fanlight.

N (MONTGOMERY STREET) ELEVATION: 7-bay elevation. To ground floor, to 3rd and 4th bays from left, mutual steps and platt leading to timber-panelled doors with distinctive 5-light letterbox fanlight; painted margins to doorway to 3rd bay.

GLAZING etc: predominantly 12-pane glazing; 4-pane glazing to ground floor to Windsor Street; plate glass to attic floor to Windsor Street (to bottom sashes only to 1st and 2nd bays from left); glazing predominantly in timber sash and case windows. M-pitched roof (piended to SW end); grey slate; stone skews and skewputts. To centre, 2 corniced ashlar stacks; to E, corniced gablehead stack; to SE, rendered wallhead stack; predominantly circular cans.

RAILINGS: edging basement recess and platts, cast-iron railings with spear-head finials, spear-headed dog bars and circular patterned border.

Statement of Special Interest

Part of the Calton A-Group.

Although the interior may have undergone alteration, a significant proportion of the original features of 34-38 Montgomery Street and 31 Windsor Street, such as plasterwork and chimneypieces, may remain and this should be kept in mind when considering changes to the internal fabric.

The block comprising forms part of Playfair's Eastern New Town (or Calton) scheme, and as such is an important example of the work of one of Scotland's leading early 19th century architects. Playfair was one of the major driving forces of the Greek Revival in Edinburgh at this time, and his public commissions such as the National Monument, the Royal Institution and the National Gallery (see separate listings) gave strength to Edinburgh's reputation as the Athens of the North. The Calton Scheme was one of his few domestic commissions, and the variety of designs, different for each street, demonstrates Playfair's expertise with the Grecian style and his characteristic punctilious attention to detail. The railings are important as their design features distinctive elements which Playfair repeated in large areas of the Calton scheme.

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, Windsor Street 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. The result of all these problems was that very little of Playfair's original scheme was ever built. When building resumed in the late 1880s, some of Playfair's original street lines were adhered to, as was the case with the western corner of Montgomery Street and Windsor Street and in others such as Hillside Crescent, 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.

References

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