Interior view of attic room

Description Interior view of attic room

Date 6/5/1958

Collection Records of the Scottish National Buildings Record, Edinburgh, Scotland

Catalogue Number ED 1929

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 774425

Scope and Content Attic rooms, Prestonfield House, No 71 Priestfield Road, Edinburgh This shows the attic with its coomb ceiling (with a slope which corresponds to that of the roof). The rooms are lit by projecting dormer windows, and have curtains attached to the wall at both top and bottom to accommodate the angle of the roof. This area would have been used as servants' accommodation. Servants usually slept in the attics or the basements of large country houses, away from the family in their grand, well-lit rooms. Female staff were usually allocated the attic rooms, and male staff the basement rooms. The most important servants such as the housekeeper or the butler had their own private bedrooms and sitting rooms, but lower servants (like housemaids) would often share a room. Prestonfield House was rebuilt for Sir James Dick in 1687 by the architect Sir William Bruce (c.1630-1710) after being burnt down during a student riot in 1681. A single-storeyed extension was added in c.1830, and in 1890 architects MacGibbon & Ross added a bathroom extension. Within the grounds is an unusual round stable block built in 1816 to designs by James Gillespie Graham (1777-1855). The house has been run as a hotel since 1959. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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