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Summary

Description

MacGibbon and Ross, dated 1887. 4-storey and attic classical commercial building connected internally to 34, 36 Shandwick place by James Tait, circa 1819, 3-storey and attic 3-bay classical townhouse.

32 SHANDWICK PLACE: gable fronted, cast-iron frame, with stucco detailing. Cornice over ground floor canted and bracketed to support 1st floor segmental headed windows, bipartite to centre. Outer pilasters and brackets at angles, supporting corniced cill course at 2nd floor. Similar pilasters and brackets at 2nd floor, windows straight headed with segmental tympana. Cornice over 2nd floor and cast-iron bombe section balcony. 4-window pilastered 3rd floor with cornice and blocking course over. Shaped gable with 2 pilastered central bays, 2 windows with semi-circular tympana, open finialed pediment, outer finials.

34, 36 SHANDWICK PLACE: 3-storey and attic, 5-bay classical townhouse, modern ground floor shop, upper storeys converted to shop and storage space. Smooth sandstone ashlar, rendered and painted ground floor shopfront, ensuite with No. 32 Shandwick Place. Break fronted and pedimented left hand bay with blind balustrade to 1st floor. 1st floor cill course; 2nd floor band course. Decorative cast-iron balconies to 2nd floor windows. Canted dormers.

N (REAR ELEVATION): 4-storey and attic, garaging at ground floor and later conversion to storage. Square snecked sandstone (later cement patching repair). Rolled steel lintels and steel shutters.

INTERIOR: late 20th century shopfloor open plan to ground floor, connecting No. 32 to 34 and 36 Shandwick Place. Deep plan with cupola topped light well to centre. Original cast-iron balustrade to stair to front right of plan. Later conversion to storage spaces at upper floors. 19th century mews garages connected to main building at ground floor to rear.

Plate glass commercial shop front at ground. Large plate glass in timber framed windows with segmented hopper openings at 1st and 2nd floors; timber sash and case at 3rd and attic storeys. Plate glass in timber sash and case windows to Nos. 34 and 36. Irregular glazing to rear, plate glass in steel frames. Steep double pitch M-section roof; grey slate; painted stone skews. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

Statement of Special Interest

32, 34 and 36 Shandwick place provide a fine example of the development of the street, from residential townhouses (as seen in the only remaining part of the original James Tait design at Nos. 34 and 36) to a commercial thoroughfare with the commercial premises designed by MacGibbon and Ross for No. 32.

The original scheme was designed by James Tait for John Cockburn Ross of Nigg, and was the first part of the Western New Town to be developed. Kirkwood's 1819 plan shows the block nearly at completion with the palace-fronted design clearly visible. The original parts of the scheme are important context for the later development of Shandwick Place into a busy commercial thoroughfare. The only other surviving parts of the scheme can be seen 1-8 Queensferry Street (see separate listing).

No. 32 is a good example of shop design from a practice more widely noted for their domestic and bank architecture. The quality of the architecture reflects the status of the street as a key route towards Princes Street. The slender glass and cast iron construction also shows how the increasing influence of American commercial design had begun to spread to Scotland by this period.

(List description revised 2009 as part of re-survey.)

References

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