The Limes, 35-39 Blackford Road, Edinburgh

The Limes, 35-39 Blackford Road, Edinburgh

A substantial villa designed by George Washington Browne in 1898, with additions and alterations following subdivision. The building underwent conversion into two units by Leadbetter, Fairley and Reid in 1946, and into three units by A G D Milligan in 1970.

The house is a two-storey structure with attic and raised basement, arranged on a rectangular plan across three bays, with Queen Anne and 17th-century architectural details. A projecting entrance bay marks the centre, with canted windows throughout. The exterior is rendered in red sandstone ashlar with deep eaves banding to the rear, canted bays and dressings, and dry-dashed walls. Window surrounds are moulded and chamfered with ashlar mullions.

The north elevation displays a three-bay arrangement with a gabled entrance bay at the centre. The principal door opens on the east return of this bay (No 35), relocated to first-floor level during the 1946 subdivision, with a forestair that was extended upwards. An oval oculus, formerly lighting an outer bay to the left of the principal floor, was repositioned beneath the stair. The door itself is nine-panelled with studded detailing. The forestair is rendered in dry dash with stone steps and ashlar dressings. A bipartite window lights the principal floor of the entrance bay, with a single window to the first floor and a corniced window in the gablehead bearing a marriage lintel initialled GWB AND JBB. A tall wallhead stack rises on the west return. Single windows to principal and first floors appear in the right-hand bay, with a bipartite arrangement at first-floor level to the outer left. A cellar door with basket-arched lintel sits beneath the forestair.

The south elevation features full-height canted windows with corniced detailing to the outer bays, their friezes pulvinated, and lit by mullioned windows at each floor. Windows to principal and first floors are accompanied by side lights. The centre bay contains a ground-floor window with round-arched openings above: a two-light window to the principal floor and three-light to the first floor. Three Queen Anne-style timber dormers are set into the roof, the central example being narrower and added later.

The east elevation contains a round-arched door at basement level (No 39) to the right of centre, flanked to the left by a later window. A further forestair was added in 1970, curling around the existing stair and leading to a door installed where a window formerly stood at principal-floor level (No 37), with a bipartite window alongside to the left.

The west elevation displays a full-height canted window to the left of centre with single windows to each face above. An attic-storey balcony with parapet contains a round-arched door. Lead-paned glazing appears in select casement windows, while the remaining timber sash and case and casement windows retain small-pane glazing. Various combinations of casement and sash and case windows share single openings. Red sandstone ashlar stacks pierce the wall plane, emerging through a dry-dashed gablehead. The roof is finished in rosemary tiles with swept eaves and is topped by a full complement of clay cans.

The interior retains a fine decorative scheme incorporating Queen Anne and Glasgow Style details, minimally altered through subdivision by redefinition of room functions. The vestibule door to No 35 features decorative glazed and leaded panels with some coloured glass, and doors throughout are panelled. A timber stair balustrade with arched links to newel posts rises within. Fine Glasgow Style window furniture adorns the leaded windows. A panelled chimneypiece and overmantel in the former bedroom (No 35) is accompanied by Dutch (or similar) tiles. Decorative geometric plasterwork is evident throughout. A segmental vault survives in the former dressing room to the south at the centre (No 35). Built-in cupboards, one fitted with decorative lead-glazed doors, are distributed through the property. Several chimneypieces have been altered. Steps lead to dormer windows, and a part-coved ceiling survives in the former day nursery.

The boundary comprises rubble walls with semicircular coping. Fine wrought-iron gates and cage-gatepiers mark the entrance to No 35.