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Summary

Description

D Cousins & J Lessels, 1869. 3-storey and attic, multi-gabled crowstepped Scots Baronial row of tenements, returning 7-bays to Boyd's Entry and 6-bays to Holyrood Road, with shops to ground and single-storey, balustraded shop to No 7 Holyrood Road. Snecked rubble with ashlar margins. Cill course at Nos 58-62, cornice to 2nd storey. Segmental-arched and rectangular window openings, some corniced. Pedimented dormers, some with apex stacks. Canted corner bay at Cowgate with turrets with pepperpot roofs. Canted, corbelled corner at Boyd's Entry with painted bull figurehead.

FURTHER DESCRIPTION: Shopfronts mainly with stone pilasters and fascias. Some with decorative metal stallrisers. No 52 with glass brick stallrisers and canopies. Recessed entrances to shops with 2-leaf timber storm doors. Predominantly 4 and 6-pane timber entrance doors to flats.

E (rear) elevation with projecting, flat-roofed, ground storey with common drying greens on top surrounded by metal railings.

Predominantly 4-pane timber sash and case windows to upper storeys, plate glass to ground. Grey slates, gable stacks. Cast iron rainwater goods.

BOUNDARY WALL: to E. Coped rubble lower sections with metal railings. Gatepiers with pyramidal caps.

Statement of Special Interest

B Group with No 2 St Mary's Street and 274-278 Canongate and 4-28 St Mary's Street.

This is an important and particularly long run of tenement buildings, built in the then fashionable Scots Baronial style. It remains largely unaltered externally and contains a number of shopfronts, the character of which is largely preserved. Forming a significant portion of the Eastern side of St Mary's Street, this row, together with Nos 6-28 St Mary's Street (see separate listing) determines the essential character of the street. The row has a projecting, flat-roofed ground floor to the rear, with drying greens on the top. The 1950s shop front at No 52 with glass brick stall risers is particularly unusual and a good survivor of its type. The single-storey, balustraded shop at No 7 Holyrood Road, is similar to No 4 St Mary's Street (see separate listing) and the two form the outer wings of the whole design.

St Mary Street was formed as part of the first wave of sanitary improvements within the Old Town of Edinburgh. Living conditions in the Old Town declined during the course of the early 19th century as the wealthier residents moved to the more respectable New Town. By 1850, the area had one of the worst slums on Europe. The Town Council decided to begin a Sanitary Improvement Scheme and instituted the 1867 Edinburgh Improvement Act. This involved the large-scale clearance, on health grounds, of 34 selected areas of the Old Town, including the old St Mary's Wynd. There was no immediate requirement to build any new houses as part of the scheme until a new agency, the Edinburgh City Improvement Trust, was set and began a programme of new house building over a 20 year period. St Mary's, Blackfriars and Jeffrey Streets were part of the initial wave of building and were intended for workers and artisans - not for the residents who had previously lived in the area, who were too poor to afford the rents.

John Lesssels (1809-1883) came from a family of builder-architects. With a successful practice in Edinburgh, he became friendly with David Cousin, the City Architect. As a result of the friendship, Lessels was appointed joint architect to the City Improvement Trust in 1866 and the proposals for St Mary Street were presented later that year.

List description revised as part of Edinburgh Holyrood Ward resurvey 2007-08.

References

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