44 Queen Street, Edinburgh

44 Queen Street, Edinburgh

This Grade A listed building comprises two adjoining houses on Queen Street. The pair were originally built circa 1790 as three-storey classical terraced houses with basements and attics. No. 43 underwent major alterations and additions by architect John Henderson in 1851, which prompted corresponding internal alterations to No. 44 to suit the reconfigured layout.

No. 43

The facade of No. 43 was completely rebuilt in 1851 in Tudor collegiate style, transforming the original classical composition. The front elevation is now a symmetrical four-storey and basement structure of two bays in polished cream sandstone ashlar. A single flight of steps flanked by railings descends to cover the basement area. The facade is framed by octagonal towers with crocketed pinnacles. Panelled band courses define each storey, and the roofline features a crenellated parapet with a central finial; crenellations return to the mutual stacks. At ground level there is a pair of Tudor-arched doorways separated by a buttress, with deep-set folding doors displaying Perpendicular panelling. The upper floors contain four-light timber windows of diminishing height with cusped heads filling each bay; transoms are present to the first and second floors.

The rear elevation is of coursed rubble, three storeys and attic with three bays, and extends at ground level to an office to the rear. A piend-roofed dormer is positioned to the right, with a skylight and stair light to the left. The roof is finished in grey slates. Twelve-pane timber sash and case windows light the rear elevation.

The interior of No. 43 was massively rebuilt in 1851 with simple Gothic plasterwork, including a rib-vaulted lobby, and has since been considerably altered for office use. The ground floor now serves as a lobby to a modern office block built to the rear (formerly a church), with no public access to the upper floors, although a spiral stair descends to the basement. The plan of the former house remains evident, with an apsidal-ended Dining Room where a simple moulded cornice survives above a suspended ceiling. A transverse curving stair once occupied the centre but has been removed. The upper floors are accessed individually from the staircase of No. 44, with passages through the party wall; a staircase niche has been made good as a room with cornices at each floor. Earlier cornices generally survive or have been made good. The front wall is of great depth, with the Gothic facade literally applied as a surface treatment.

At first floor, alterations dating to circa 1820 are evident. Two rooms occupy the front: the west room features a white marble chimneypiece with reeded quadrant corners and carved panels incorporating veined marble slips and a cast-iron register grate; the east room contains a black slate neo-Greek chimneypiece with double doors opening to a rear room, now partitioned off. The rear room has an Ionic screen (partition behind) and a brown and grey marble Gothic chimneypiece with fluted corniced doorpieces.

No. 44

No. 44 is a three-storey, basement and attic structure of three bays. It now functions as a shop at basement, ground, and first floor levels. The front elevation is of droved Craigleith sandstone ashlar (cleaned) with polished dressings. Channelled rustication appears at ground level, with long and short quoins. The fenestration is regular throughout; windows display moulded architraves to the first and second floors and are corniced at first floor. A tripartite doorpiece to the left features quarter-engaged Roman Doric columns, a fluted frieze, and a dentilled cornice, with a decorative metal fanlight above. A bowed slate-hung piend-roofed dormer is positioned to the right, with a pair of Velux windows to the left and a stair light. The roof is finished in grey slates.

The rear elevation is of coursed rubble, four storeys and two bays, with a full-height bow to the right. A later dry-dashed flat-roofed two-storey extension has been added to the right. Venetian windows appear to the left at ground (possibly), first (partly blocked), and second floors; that at third floor is tripartite. Timber sash and case twelve-pane windows light the building throughout, with the lower sashes at ground level fitted with plate glass. Ashlar coped mutual skews and substantial dressed stone mutual stacks are present.

The interior of No. 44 features a flagged entrance hall with an enriched ceiling displaying three panels with husks and bows and a quatrefoil at the centre, finished with twentieth-century timber dado and doorpieces. A top-lit curving cantilevered stair on axis ascends to the attic with plain square iron banisters; a blocked basket-arched doorway is noted. A door to the right provides access to the shop at ground, first floor, and basement levels.

The basement is accessed from the area and also from the shop via an original tiled stair that continues the line of the main stair. The shop has been considerably altered, with the addition of a straight flight of stairs to the first floor featuring a wrought-iron banister. The front room at ground contains a very large fine carved chimneypiece with fluted Corinthian pilasters topped by urns, a fluted frieze, and a central panel enriched with gesso mouldings (partly submerged in a raised platform). The cupola is enriched with swagged husks and a frieze with griffons and anthemiae, with a double-pitch skylight above.