Numbers 51 To 57 (Consecutive) With Railings To Front

Numbers 51 to 57 are a terrace of six houses, now used for commercial purposes, built around 1844 to a design by James Gillespie Graham. The buildings are faced with ashlar stone and have a rusticated ground floor, hipped Welsh slate roofs, and axial stacks. They rise four storeys above a basement and feature a 19-window range arranged in a pattern of three windows, then thirteen, and then three again. Each house has two round-arched windows on the ground floor and a doorway to the right. The doorways are framed by architraves with engaged Doric pilasters in the outer bays, while the central range has Doric porches. The outer bays are accentuated by engaged Doric shafts on the first and second storeys, with plain pilasters marking the attic storey. The windows are 12-pane sash types with moulded architraves in the central range, and there are cast-iron balconies with an acanthus motif on the first floor, although some are missing in the right-hand outer bays. Above, there is a cornice and an attic storey with 9-pane sash windows, many of which have been replaced. A secondary cornice and blocking course sit above this. The return elevations on each side have three bays with a central door in a portico. The terrace features cast-iron railings around the basement area and distinctive cast-iron foot scrapers shaped like sphinxes. Several houses retain their original staircases and other contemporary features. This terrace is part of Hamilton Square, a significant example of formal urban planning initiated by John Laird in 1825.