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Edinburgh, 3-4 Hunter Square

Bank (Financial) (19th Century), Hall (18th Century)

Site Name Edinburgh, 3-4 Hunter Square

Classification Bank (Financial) (19th Century), Hall (18th Century)

Alternative Name(s) Royal Bank Of Scotland; Baird And Stevenson Ltd

Canmore ID 52338

Site Number NT27SE 311

NGR NT 25888 73606

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/52338

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
Canmore Disclaimer. © Copyright and database right 2024.

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Administrative Areas

  • Council Edinburgh, City Of
  • Parish Edinburgh (Edinburgh, City Of)
  • Former Region Lothian
  • Former District City Of Edinburgh
  • Former County Midlothian

Archaeology Notes

NT27SE 311 25888 73606

Architecture Notes

NT27SE 311 25888 73606

Built in 1788-90 as the Edinburgh Merchant Company Hall from plans by John Baxter Jr. Three storeys and basement. Rusticated ground floor reconstructed for the Royal Bank in 1898 by J M Dick Peddie.

RCAHMS 1951; J Gifford, C McWilliam and D Walker 1984.

ARCHITECT: John Baxter 1788-90

Good Adam style. Ground floor altered. Wood and plaster panelling in Hall. Fireplaces.

REFERENCE: NMRS HISTORICAL FILE

10 pages of text giving details of development of area surrounding the Bridges and Cockburn Street -filed under "COCKBURN STREET"

Edinburgh, Hunter Square, Royal Bank of Scotland.

NMRS REFERENCE.

PLANS:

Dick Peddie and MacKay, Edinburgh.

Bin 36, Bag 2.

Kinnear and Peddie, 1879.

Edinburgh, Hunter Square, Royal Bank of Scotland.

NMRS REFERENCE.

PLANS:

Dick Peddie and MacKay, Edinburgh, alts.

Bin 36, Bag 2.

peddie and kinnear, 1875.

Activities

Publication Account (1951)

46. 3 and 4 Hunter Square.

This property, standing on the W. side of Hunter Square and looking out on Stevenlaw's Close behind, was built by the Edinburgh Merchant Company in 1788 from plans by John Baxter, who acted in the dual capacity of architect and contractor. His scheme embraced a Merchants' Hall on the first and principal floor, two shops below with five cellars running under the pavement, and dwelling-houses above. The total cost was estimated at £2,200. (1) To-day the street floor and basement are occupied by the Royal Bank of Scotland, and the upper floors by a firm of warehousemen.

The building has three main storeys with a basement, subterranean in front but partly exposed behind, and an attic. It was oblong on plan, but for a shallow central projection at the back to contain the staircase, until, about the middle of the 19th century, a single-storeyed saloon was projected W.in alinement with the mutual N. gable. The front is of ashlar, channel-jointed on the street floor and polished above. At either end of it there is a small Ionic porch, and between the porches four windows; but this arrangement dates only from 1894, when the Bank reconstructed the lowest part of the front from the sub-cornice downwards. From this cornice four fluted and reeded pilasters, one at each end of the front and two intermediately spaced, rise through two storeys and support block friezes, each block enriched with a carved roundel; above the friezes the main cornice runs unbroken across the whole front and is surmounted in its turn by an open balustrade with pedestals over the pilasters. The upper part of the front is thus divided into three bays. In each bay there are two windows, one on the first and the other on the second floor, separated by a fluted horizontal band enriched with carved roundels, which runs between the pilasters. The first-floor windows are lofty, unmoulded, round-headed and recessed, the moulded impost of the recess stopping against the pilasters; the smaller second-floor windows are likewise unmoulded but are lintelled. At each end of the roof a large dormer has been added to remedy the excessive camp-ceiling that the flat pitch of the roof entailed. The back of the building is constructed of rubble. Its only features are a plain pediment and a Venetian window, both in the staircase projection. As in front, the roof has been altered to improve two attic rooms at the back of the building.

The doorway in the S. end of the front gives access to the bank premises, which occupy the greater part of the street and basement floors. The telling hall, into which the doorway opens, faces the street and is entirely modern apart from an exceptionally fine mantelpiece of carved pine, having a ship supported on dolphins as the central motif on its frieze. This came from the Hall on the floor above. Behind the telling-hall is a small lobby where a modern stair leads off to the basement and a doorway at the back opens into the agent's room at the S.W. corner of the building. This room and the basement have both been modernised. Access can still be had from the basement to two of the original vaulted cellars below the pavement, but the others, situated farther N., have been shut off for use by the tenant of the upper floors. The doorway in the N. end of the front opens into a passage running inside and parallel to the mutual N. gable, and emerging in across lobby at the N.W. corner of the building. A doorway on the W. leads into the saloon. On the S. is the main staircase, together with a side stair to the basement. This latter stair, which seems to have originally given access to the whole of the basement, now admits only to the parts beneath the saloon, passage and main staircase. The main staircase, of scale-and-platt type, rises from the street-level to the attic. On the first floor the old Merchants' Hall is still undivided and remains substantially intact, running the whole width of the frontage. It is lit by the three lofty windows facing E. The walls have a panelled dado of wood and above this are panelled in 'plaster; the plaster panel mouldings are reeded and have leaves twisted at intervals round the reeding. At either end of the Hall is a central projecting chimney-breast; the contemporary plaster cornice can still be seen returning round this, but the fireplaces themselves are concealed. The rest of the wood-work is for the most part modern. Behind the Hall are two small, featureless rooms situated one on each side of the staircase, and, as the Hall is very lofty, there are two small mezzanine rooms, also quite featureless, above them.

The second floor, once a dwelling house, has been opened out so that the front room now has the same area as the Hall below. The only vestiges of the domestic arrangement are two fireplaces, one in each gable, with stock mantelpieces enriched in stucco duro. There is a dado panelling on the walls. As below, there are two small rooms at the back, the S.one having an enriched wooden mantelpiece of no great merit. The same arrangement now holds good for the attic floor, as this also has a single large room to the front and two small rooms at the back. The front room has a fireplace at each end with a wooden mantelpiece enriched in stucco dura. There is another mantelpiece of this type in the N.W. room. The N.E. room has a stone mantelpiece and was evidently once a kitchen.

RCAHMS 1951

(1) MS. Minute Book of the Edinburgh Merchant Company, 19 June, 1788, ff.

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