Mackie's Corner

Mackie's Corner

Former shops and houses, built 1850-53 to designs by George Andrew Middlemiss. Classical style with 20th and 21st century alterations.

The building occupies 1 and 1a Bridge Street and 101-103 High Street West, presenting a rectangular plan with a distinctive curved corner facing the junction of these two streets. It comprises four storeys plus basements, constructed in Craigleith sandstone ashlar with a Welsh slate roof and a lead-covered dome. The rear elevation is of hand-made brick.

The Giant Corinthian order applied to the first and second floors serves as an architectural division between the original commercial and residential functions. The west elevation facing Bridge Street contains three bays, while the south elevation facing High Street West has two bays. Each bay is framed by pilasters with modified capitals. The curved corner section between them is enriched by four attached columns on shallow pedestals. The columns and pilasters support a high entablature with a dentilled frieze and a modillioned cornice, with applied lion heads ornamenting the curved corner.

All windows have plain reveals and are set directly into the wall surface without surrounds, though those on the second floor have bracketed projecting sills. A number of original sash windows remain, though most are later replacements. The attic storey has plain pilasters defining the bays, an eaves gutter cornice, and a blocking course with a palmette finial at the right end. A corniced drum with palmette finials and two clock faces supports the prominent lead-covered dome of sixteen ribs. The roof has steeply pitched transverse-ridge chimneys.

The ground floors display 20th century shop fronts and fascias, though the original entablature is believed to remain behind these later additions. The more northerly former Manfield shopfront on Bridge Street retains its early 20th century shop front with mosaic threshold bearing the letter 'M', plate-glass windows, and columns. The rear elevation, partially obscured by rough cast render, retains several original segmental-headed windows.

The interior preserves significant historical features. Stone-walled cellars from pre-1850s houses that formerly occupied the Bridge Street site survive beneath the building. The basements retain their original plans with later subdivisions; one has a brick-vaulted ceiling while another retains its original green and cream decorative scheme. The rear of 103 High Street West, thought to have served as the kitchen, has plastered walls, an original north-facing window opening, and a substantial fireplace with plain ashlar surround containing the remains of a cast-iron range.

The first floors retain original joinery and plaster work, much of it decorative, featuring moulded architraves with paterae to the corners, deeply moulded plaster cornices, and ornate fire surrounds. An original but modified cast-iron stair rises from ground to first floor with lattice work to the risers and quatrefoils to the treads. The second floor has simpler joinery and plaster work including a moulded cornice and boarded ceilings. The third floor features moulded architraves to doorways and a pair of original fireplaces with simple painted stone surrounds, one retaining a cast-iron grate.

The corner dome retains plastered walls that reveal the original cast iron ribs boxed-in with curved wood. Much of the clock mechanism has been removed, though its wooden frame remains. The adjoining attic corridor and landing preserves some of the original paint scheme. Further original and historic features are considered to remain within the building, concealed by later inserted ceilings and boarded walls.