Edinburgh, 7 York Place

126 (b). 7 York Place.

In 1793 the Town feued the site of No. 7 York Place to the Rev. Alexander Cleve, from whom it was acquired some time before 1795 by Alexander Laing, an Edinburgh architect, who retained the property until 1818. Laing may have completed the house to his own plans after the deaths of the Adam brothers, which occurred respectively in 1793 and 1794, for the interior is in no way characteristic of their work. The entrance from the street opens into a vestibule at the N.W. corner of the building. This leads into a staircase, on the E. of which are the two original rooms on this floor. On the S. is a third room situated in a three-storeyed wing which has been added to the back of the building. The room at the N.E. corner was the dining-room, and contains on the E. a fine carved mantelpiece of pine. The walls have a moulded cornice and dado panelling. The room at the S.E. corner has a moulded cornice, and is lit from the S. by a window which has been enlarged to compensate for the loss of light entailed by the addition of the wing. The mantelpiece on the E. is modern and replaces a counterpart of the one in the dining-room. The room in the extension is lit from the E. by three windows; there are also two blind windows in the S. gable and their embrasures form cupboards. On the W. is a plain stone mantelpiece. The staircase contains a stone stair, with plain cast-iron balusters and a mahogany rail, which rises to the second floor. At the stair-foot is a press, thought to have been originally an access to the chapel but rather narrow for this purpose. The basement, which has been considerably altered, seems to have had three rooms in the original arrangement. In the wing behind are three vaulted cellars facing E. on an open area. There are four cellars below the pavement of York Place which are entered offthe front area. On the first floor there are three rooms in the original part of the house, two above the front and back rooms and the third over the vestibule, while the wing accommodates a fourth room at this level. On the second floor there are four rooms, two in front and two at the back, while the attic contains three others. None of the rooms above the street floor is, however, of any special interest.

RCAHMS 1951, visited c.1941