Wardieburn House, 496 Ferry Road, Edinburgh

Wardieburn House, Ferry Road, Edinburgh

Wardieburn House is a Scottish Baronial villa built around 1870 with later 20th-century additions. It is now part of brewery offices. The building is two storeys with an attic, arranged in an asymmetrical L-plan with a four-stage tower positioned at the re-entrant angle.

The walls are constructed of stugged squared and snecked sandstone with droved and polished sandstone ashlar dressings and details. Crowstepped gables feature throughout. The tower is topped with Renaissance detailing.

The entrance elevation is largely obscured by modern office buildings. The tower entrance sits to the left of centre, now covered by a glazed reception area. Above this is a finely moulded architraved window with an apron, surmounted by a stepped table with an armorial tablet flanked by corbels. The jettied gablehead displays a Renaissance-style window with finely moulded architrave and strapwork pediment topped by a star. A carved finial (possibly a stylised thistle) with a shield sits at the centre, and the gable has ashlar coping with roll-mouldings. The tower's second and third stages have single windows with stopped roll-moulded reveals. A Renaissance-style dormer with finely moulded upper architrave and carved pediment with armorial panel sits above. A stepped buttress adjoins the main body at eaves level. A rounded single-storey infill section with conical roof occupies the re-entrant angle, featuring a single window with stopped roll-moulded reveal and continuous roll-moulded hoodmould.

The south gable end has a ground-floor window with chamfered angles forming niches with pedestals and corbelled corbels above at first-floor level. Two first-floor windows and one narrow attic window in the crowstepped gable follow, all with stopped roll-moulded reveals except the attic window.

The west elevation contains a projecting section right of centre with chamfered and stopped sides at ground floor. A parapet with moulded ashlar cornice and a pair of stone waterspouts (with a recessed stone panel between) sits above the second floor. A stepped buttress rises above eaves on the right return. A crowstepped gable on the left return has a wall with a stepped corbel table beneath. The wall recesses at the far left angle to form a niche. Fenestration is irregular with all windows having chamfered and stopped reveals; a three-light mullion window appears on the ground floor of the projecting section.

The north elevation features a crow-stepped gable end to the right with lower sections formed by smaller flanking crowstepped gables set slightly forward. A single window with chamfered and stopped reveals appears at the centre of each floor, with that at ground floor on a set-forward plane. Narrow windows serve the flanking gables. A stepped corbelled niche sits at the right corner. A later rendered lean-to from an adjacent building adjoins to the left. A two-bay section of original external wall exists beyond, featuring a curved bay to the left with an arrowhead opening at ground floor rising to first-floor level with a towerlike appearance, corbelled out to a square crenellated parapet at eaves. A pedimented window set back to the right serves the first floor, with all windows having chamfered and stopped reveals.

The north gable end has three crowstepped gable ends, the central one slightly recessed, with fenestration not visible.

The roof is covered in grey slate with coped ridges. Wallhead stacks with moulded cornices appear at the far right gable on the east elevation, the west gable of the tower, the west elevation gable, and to either side of the projecting section on the west (both slightly corbelled), with round cans throughout.

Most windows are replacement PVCu sash windows, though some timber sash and case windows remain in the tower.

The interior was not inspected at the time of listing assessment.