Listed Building

The only legal part of the listing under the Planning (Listing Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 is the address/name of site. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing – see 'About Listed Buildings' below for more information. The further details below the 'Address/Name of Site' are provided for information purposes only.

Address/Name of Site

SHANDWICK PLACE 2, 4 AND 1-4 (CONSECUTIVE NUMBERS) QUENSFERRY STREET, INCLUDING H P MATHERS BARLB30180

Status: Designated

Documents

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Summary

Category
B
Date Added
30/01/1981
Supplementary Information Updated
28/02/2017
Local Authority
Edinburgh
Planning Authority
Edinburgh
Burgh
Edinburgh
NGR
NT 24609 73681
Coordinates
324609, 673681

Description

Sydney Mitchell & Wilson 1901, ground floor largely refaced by Tarbolton & Ochterlony 1938-40. Large Free Renaissance corner building, 4-storey and attic with ground floor shops and public house. Shandwick Place frontage broad 3-window, with wide curvilinear wallhead gable rising to shell-head, 3-window at attic, single oculus in cartouche at garret; Queensferry Street frontage public house, rusticated with two deeply moulded segmental arches with mullions and timber panelled entrance door within right arch. Above, 3 identical 2-bay windows 1st floor level each with 2-window curvilinear wallhead gable, swagged at the tympanum with square chimney block above. 1st, 2nd and 3rd floor windows with Gibbs surrounds and pulvinated friezes, large singles at 1st with alternate voussoirs projected and linking band of scrolls, 2nd and 3rd floor double-windowed with quintuple key blocks, those at 2nd with thin continuous apron and guttae. Slim single-windowed recessed quadrant corner, armorial cartouche over quintuple keyblocked 1st floor window, keyblocked architraved windows with cornices 2nd and 3rd, pilastered rotunda at attic rising to concave set-off with cartouche bearing peristyle cupola with distyle treatment between buttresses and ogee leaded roof with lucarnes, small lantern at top.

The interior of the public house was seen in 2007. Good quality early 20th century decorative scheme by Sydney Mitchell largely intact. Floor to ceiling tiled lobby with timber panelled part-glazed inner door. Timber panelling to dado and timber chimneypiece with over-mantle with mirror. Elaborate compartmented ceiling with deeply moulded cornice and plaster frieze with birds and swags of fruit. Timber panelled bar counter front. Ceiling-height gantry with segmental-arched pediments to sides and split pediment to centre with arched mirrors between slender Ionic columns; glazed cabinets below.

The interior of the former bank has not been seen but it is known to have a stained glass feature window, carved wooden figures representing each sign of the Zodiac and a painted ceiling by Henry Lintott in the former telling room of 1940.

Statement of Special Interest

This building is of major importance both because of the quality of its design by the prominent architectural practice Sydney Mitchell & Wilson and because of the important role it plays in the streetscape at the west end of Princes Street. The design combines elements of the Edwardian Baroque in the repeated use of the Gibbsian windows with touches Art Nouveau in the small corner turret and curvilinear gables. Sydney Mitchell was a very capable designer being able to turn his hand to both public and private work with equal ease, designing fluently in a number of styles.

The building was constructed to serve as premises for a branch of the Commercial Bank with its entrance on the corner and for public rooms for the Caledonian United Services Club on the first and second floors with a separate entrance in Queensferry Street. It also accommodated other shops and a public house on the ground floor.

The design of the public house, including the interior fittings, is by Sydney Mitchell. The exterior of the public house is largely unaltered except for the skin of reddish polished stone below the windows which is the result of the changes introduced by Tarbolton & Ochterlony. The interior fittings of the public house are of high quality and are largely unaltered. The gantry is finely carved and the plasterwork is particularly noteworthy.

The treatment of the windows is stylistically similar to the arched windows on the second floor of the Commercial Bank's premises in North Bridge designed by Mitchell a couple of years earlier.

Arthur George Sydney Mitchell (1856-1930) was the son of the eminent surgeon Dr Arthur Miller, later Sir Arthur Miller. Miller senior was an influential figure in society in the later Victorian period in Scotland holding a range of important administrative posts including a directorship of the Commercial Bank. Through this connection, the younger Mitchell obtained the patronage of the bank and nearly all his major commercial commissions were undertaken for it. His first work for the bank was the interior remodelling of the bank's premises at 14 George Street, Edinburgh. There followed a series of other jobs, some for smaller provincial branches, but many for large and prominent buildings including that on the corner of North Bridge and High Street, the remodelling of the chief office in Gordon Street in Glasgow and the new building in Union Street Aberdeen, the last in the series being the building on the Shandwick Place and Queensferry Street corner site.

List description updated as part of the Public Houses Thematic Study 2007-08. The interior part of the description section and the references were updated in 2017.

References

Bibliography

NMRS Sydney Mitchell & Wilson Collection drawings Ref No SMW 1880/9/5/1 & 2.

Dawn Caswell McDowell, Scottish Assets: the Commercial Architecture of A G Sydney Mitchell, Architectural Heritage Volume XV, pp45-66.

Dictionary of Scottish Architects www.scottisharchitects.org.uk (accessed January 2008).

Michael Slaughter (Ed.): Scotland's True Heritage Pubs: Pub Interiors of Special Historic Interest (2007), p49.

John Gifford et al (1991) The Buildings of Scotland: Edinburgh. p.380.

About Listed Buildings

Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.

We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.

Listing is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for buildings of special architectural or historic interest as set out in the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997.

We list buildings which are found to be of special architectural or historic interest using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)

Listed building records provide an indication of the special architectural or historic interest of the listed building which has been identified by its statutory address. The description and additional information provided are supplementary and have no legal weight.

These records are not definitive historical accounts or a complete description of the building(s). If part of a building is not described it does not mean it is not listed. The format of the listed building record has changed over time. Earlier records may be brief and some information will not have been recorded.

The legal part of the listing is the address/name of site which is known as the statutory address. Other than the name or address of a listed building, further details are provided for information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland does not accept any liability for any loss or damage suffered as a consequence of inaccuracies in the information provided. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing. Even if a number or name is missing from a listing address it will still be listed. Listing covers both the exterior and the interior and any object or structure fixed to the building. Listing also applies to buildings or structures not physically attached but which are part of the curtilage (or land) of the listed building as long as they were erected before 1 July 1948.

While Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating listed buildings, the planning authority is responsible for determining what is covered by the listing, including what is listed through curtilage. However, for listed buildings designated or for listings amended from 1 October 2015, legal exclusions to the listing may apply.

If part of a building is not listed, it will say that it is excluded in the statutory address and in the statement of special interest in the listed building record. The statement will use the word 'excluding' and quote the relevant section of the 1997 Act. Some earlier listed building records may use the word 'excluding', but if the Act is not quoted, the record has not been revised to reflect subsequent legislation.

Listed building consent is required for changes to a listed building which affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest. The relevant planning authority is the point of contact for applications for listed building consent.

Find out more about listing and our other designations at www.historicenvironment.scot/advice-and-support. You can contact us on 0131 668 8914 or at designations@hes.scot.

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