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Summary

Description

John Alexander Carfrae, 1911-14. 3-storey with basement and attic, symmetrical, rectangular double quadrangle-plan freestyle Renaissance school with Byzantine details. Harled with ashlar dressings, coursed rubble to ground floor and basement. Corniced band course below 1st floor windows, advanced and bracketed at centre of each bay; cornice. Giant engaged columns to 1st and 2nd storeys with advanced cornices and pinnacles on pedestals.

SW (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: 13-bay. Advanced central bay, canted with concave sides to 2 floors at ground; Doric columns and swept copper canopy to porch at ground; single windows to concave sides; panelled timber outer doors leading to timber entrance doors with glazed panels and plate glass fanlight; single windows to floor above, canted at sides; carved motif to centre of corniced, canted balcony with concave sides; round-arched stair window at 2nd floor level and between 1st and 2nd floors; continuous band of 5 round arches supported on colonnettes, with cill course and projecting hood moulds; dentilled cornice; central bay framed by banded ashlar at ground with single arrow slit to each side; giant engaged Ionic columns to 1st and 2nd floor flanked on outside by giant engaged Ionic pilasters and topped by entablature and projecting cornice; ashlar bands to advanced harled pilasters at attic level. 4 bays to right of central bay: no basement; tripartite mullioned windows to all floors, Diocletian windows at 2nd floor; single windows to ground and 1st floor of next bay to right, with narrow round-arched bipartite window to 2nd floor; bay to outer right advanced; tripartite mullioned windows to all floors, giant engaged Ionic columns to 1st and 2nd floor flanked on outside by giant engaged Ionic pilasters and topped by entablature and projecting cornice with double pedestals and pinnacles. 4 bays to left of central bay: mirror image of bays to right, with basement, fenestrated as floors above.

SE ELEVATION: 5-bay, symmetrical. Upper stories harled. Central tower of campanile form; ashlar base course; recessed 2-leaf timber entrance door with recessed voussoired tympanum flanked by bracketed engaged shafts with corniced capitals supporting carved seated figures of learning; round-arched voussoired bipartite window with dentilled hoodmould to 1st and 2nd floors above with double-columned central support with carved cushion capitals; band of 3 architraved windows above; arrow slit with round-arched hoodmould aligned above; 3 single windows to return at left; projecting bracketed, corniced bands of masonry below round-arched voussoired apertures to top stage; projecting dentilled cornice. Flanking bays fenestrated as main elevation; giant engaged Ionic pilasters to upper stories, double at angles.

NW ELEVATION: tower to central bay of same form as tower to SE elevation, except doorway at lower level, square-headed and with semicircular fanlight, opening onto roof of annex; doorway in return to ground at basement level with swan-neck pediment; flanking bays as to SE elevation, with basement, fenestrated as floors above.

ANNEX: single storey 7-bay sandstone building adjoining basement. Raised central bay with ball finials and voussoired round-arched entrance to rear at centre; to each side, single windows flank bipartite window with stone mullions; banded pilasters; cornice; corniced piers aligned with pilasters and joined by metal railings.

NE (REAR) ELEVATION: as front elevation, with following differences: continuous band course below 1st floor windows, with no advanced sections; banded pilasters rather than engaged Ionic columns to upper stories; banded pilasters flank tripartite window with cill course in upper section of central bay; oculus to tympanum of broken pediment; basement fenestrated as floors above; later addition to basement at right.

Timber sash and case glazing. Grey slate piended roof. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: white brick inner quadrangles; to NW, 3 storeys surround glass piend-roofed basement; to SE, alterations to quadrangle include incorporation of new, metal-beamed sports hall.

BOUNDARY WALLS, GATEPIERS, GATES AND RAILINGS: banded polished ashlar sets of gatepiers; decorative cast-iron gates; spiked iron railings to coped, coursed rubble walls.

Statement of Special Interest

One of Edinburgh School Board's greatest projects by its architect JA Carfrae, Boroughmuir occupies a domineering site with its giant Ionic columns.

References

Bibliography

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