Edinburgh, 18 East London Street, Gayfield House
Villa (18th Century)
Site Name Edinburgh, 18 East London Street, Gayfield House
Classification Villa (18th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Gayfield Place
Canmore ID 52267
Site Number NT27SE 249
NGR NT 25962 74768
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/52267
- Council Edinburgh, City Of
- Parish Edinburgh (Edinburgh, City Of)
- Former Region Lothian
- Former District City Of Edinburgh
- Former County Midlothian
Three storey and attic, five bay house incorporating a raised basement. Central pediment over three central bays with urn finials and central oculus window. Some fine period detail including bed recesses and papier mache ceilings in some rooms.
Built in the Charles and William Butter, wrights, 1763-65 as what was then a suburban villa.
REFERENCE:
Scottish Record Office
Alterations, repairs and paintwork
Accounts
1800-1810 GD 170/514/13 (Barcaldine)
Scottish Record Office:
Bound volume of finished drawings. Signed Hippolyte J Blanc 5th March 1870 - 6 plans dwelling house, offices and coach-houses
Publication Account (1951)
168. Gayfield House, East London Street.
Built shortly before 1765 by Charles and William Butter, wrights in Edinburgh (1), this house, which now stands in industrial surroundings, is an interesting example of mid-18th century suburban architecture. It has been selected for description in this volume, in preference to Marionville, the larger and almost contemporary house at Restalrig, to illustrate the type of architecture in fashion outside the burgh at the time when the New Town was beginning to be thought of. Oblong on plan and facing S., it contains three main storeys and a garret, the basement looking out on a sunk area in front but open behind and at each side. While the back and sidewalls are of rubble and the gables have curved tops, the front is rendered in cement, the central part being advanced and surmounted by a triangular pediment with urn-shaped finials. The entrance, an Ionic doorpiece with an entablature, is central in the middle storey and is reached from a perron. On either side of it there is a window on every floor, flanked by another in the recessed part of the front. The lowest windows have plain margins. Those at the entrance level have moulded and lugged architraves, plain friezes and moulded cornices; while on the windows of the storey above friezes and cornices are omitted. One of the garret rooms is lit from a roundel in the tympanum of the pediment. The roof, ridged between the gables on E. and W., has a hip on the S. to suit the front, a device commonly used for terminal blocks of buildings in the New Town.
To the basement floor there is direct entry from the N. by a central door, now sheltered by a modern porch. The principal entrance, on the floor above, opens into a central vestibule with an enriched ceiling. A doorway at each side gives access to the rooms at the S.E. and S.W. corners of the house, Anda glazed door at the inner end opens to the staircase from which the rooms at the N.E. and N.W. corners are entered. The room at the S.W. corner has two windows facing S. and a third facing W., the front windows flanking a shelved niche enclosed by doors, evidently a china cupboard. The fireplace on the W. has a mantelpiece with a carved surround, frieze and cornice; as the slip is painted it is impossible to say whether it is of stone of or marble. On the N. is a central recess, resembling a bed recess and flanked on one side by a press and on the other by a little passage-room which leads into the room at the N.W. corner of the house. The recess has an archivolt with a key-block, and the cornice of the room is dentilated. The N.W. room, now used as a kitchen, has two windows facing N. On the W. is a wooden mantelpiece with a dentilated cornice. The E. wall is covered by a pine bookcase with astragals, which is continued over the entrance from the staircase. Of the two rooms on the E. side of the staircase and vestibule, the one at the S.E. corner was apparently the dining-room. It is lit from the E. by two windows and from the S.by two more, and has on the E. a good carved mantelpiece of pine. On the N. is a recess for a sideboard. The walls have a chair-rail carved with a guilloche ornament, and an enriched cornice with moulded blocks. The room at the N.E. corner, having been converted into a bathroom and a small bedroom, shows nothing of interest.
The staircase contains a geometrical stair which descends to the basement and rises to the first floor. The steps are of wood, and the balustrade has turned wooden balusters surmounted by a massive and clumsy rail, apparently of mahogany. The basement accommodation, now utilised as workshops, originally consisted of four rooms, but the kitchen at the S.W. corner and the adjoining room on the N. have been thrown into one ; it is said that, when the partition between them was removed, traces were found of steps, as though there had once been a service stair emerging within the little passage-room on the floor above. If this report is correct, the stair is almost certain to have been inserted. The room at the N.E. corner of the basement contains a stone mantelpiece with rounded corners and channelled keystone and panels, a type common in Queen Anne's time. Otherwise there is nothing of interest at this level.
Although a lavatory has recently been formed over part of the stair, the landing at the first-floor level is still spacious and well lit. At its farther, or N., end is a central niche flanked by two doors, the one to the E. shutting off the garret stair while the other admits to a small room over the vestibule. On its E. side, at the N.E. corner of the house, lies the old drawing-room, which has an interesting coved and enriched ceiling and is lit by two windows facing E. and a third facing S. On the E. is the fireplace with a fine carved wooden mantelpiece, enclosing a marble slip. The walls have a carved dado-rail and an enriched cornice with blocks. The room over the vestibule has a single window facing S., beside which is a built-up fireplace with vestiges of pine panelling above it. This room opens into those at each side of it. The one at the S.E. corner has apparently been enlarged, either by taking in a press or more probably at the expense of the room over the vestibule. As it now stands there are two windows facing S. with a cupboard concealed by panelling between them. On the E.is a fireplace with a plain wooden mantelpiece and a contemporary hob-grate. The room at the S.W. corner has two windows facing S. and a third to the W. On the N. is a bed-recess flanked on one side by a press and on the other by a small dressing closet. On the W. is a wooden mantelpiece with a carved surround and carved frieze. The walls have a chair-rail and a dentilated cornice. The last room on this floor occupies the N.W. corner and has one window facing N. On the W. is a plain fireplace containing a hob-grate. The walls have a moulded cornice and a chair-rail. The stair to the garret, also of wood, is narrow and steep. At the stair-head is a neatly-turned wooden balustrade. At this level there are four coomb-ceiled rooms, evidently servants' quarters.
RCAHMS 1951, visited c.1941
(1) Particular Register of Edinburgh Sasines, vol. 168, f. 163.
Photographic Survey (1 February 2013)
Photographed for the Threatened Buildings Survey post sale.
