1, 2 And 3, Chapel Row

Nos. 1, 2, and 3 Chapel Row form a group of three stepped terrace houses, built around 1734 and altered in the 19th century. Designed by John Wood the Elder, they were constructed as part of the western extension of the city.

The houses are built of limestone ashlar with slate roofs. They have a three-storey, attic, and basement layout, with an entrance to No. 1 in Princes Street. All windows are sash windows; at the second and first floors they are set within moulded architraves, and there are floating cornices at first floor level. No. 1 has paired sash dormers above paired plain sashes on each of the three upper floors, with a net balconette at the first floor, and a pavement grille to the sixteen-pane basement window. To the left, the return elevation is painted ashlar with three blind lights at each level. It features a panelled door with side-lights in a pedimented doorcase supported by unfluted palmette half-columns. No. 2 has paired casement dormers above three plain sashes on each floor. The first floor has separate bowed balconettes, and the basement has two sixteen-pane sashes with grilles. It features a six-panel door with a two-pane transom light and an architrave. No. 3 retains its original glazing-bar sashes, with a paired twelve-pane dormer above a twelve-pane sash with separate balconettes, and a twelve-pane sash, with sixteen-pane to basement windows with grilles. A further detail of No. 3 is an eight-panel door on two steps, in an architrave. A platband runs above the ground floor, and the inscription “CHAPEL ROW” and “PRINCES STREET” are incised in Roman lettering. The building is finished with a cornice, a shallow blocking course, and a parapet, all of which are returned along Princes Street. Rubble stacks are located to the right of each house, rising from the coped party walls between Nos. 1 and 3. The rear elevation is four storeys high, built of squared rubble with flush ashlar dressings to the openings, some of which have straight drip courses. No. 1 has a full-height canted bay with plain sashes, some of which are blind. The interiors have not been inspected.

The houses were first rated in 1734 and were part of a relatively low-status row. Unlike the rest of the terrace, these three buildings are stepped slightly higher and retain original domestic fenestration at ground floor level. The name "Chapel Row" derives from a chapel built by Wood nearby in 1732, off Queen Square, which was demolished in 1875.