Norton House Hotel, Edinburgh

Norton House Hotel, Edinburgh

A Grade B listed building in the style of Bryce, dating from circa 1838 with additions and remodelling carried out in the late 19th century and modern additions made on conversion to hotel use. The house is a 2-storey, asymmetrical gabled structure with Tudor-Jacobean details and a rambling plan. It is constructed of coursed, stugged, honey-coloured sandstone with ashlar margins and chamfered arrises, sitting on a base course. The gableheads are distinguished by recessed plaques and gabled dormerheads.

The south elevation presents a 4-bay main block with a lower recessed service block to the left and an elaborate entrance porch set in a re-entrant angle. The main block is nearly symmetrical, with slightly advanced gabled outer bays, the right-hand bay being the broader of the two. Square bay windows sit at ground level both right and left, the left-hand bay bipartite with an ashlar half-piend roof and the right-hand bay tripartite with a blocking course. String courses run on either side of the bay windows. Windows are symmetrically arranged in the two centre bays, with dormerhead windows at first floor level. A sandstone ashlar loggia-type Renaissance porch occupies the west return, with a pedestal base and corner piers featuring circled and panelled shafts supporting two centre Corinthian columns. These columns carry an entablature and open arched balustrade with ball finials. An armorial escutcheon appears on the south face beneath a console pediment, with a monogram supported on anthemion in the frieze below. To the left of the porch on the west side sits a rendered and lined 2-bay flat-roofed infill. The service wing is a 3-bay element recessed to the left, with an advanced gable at the outer left corner featuring a bipartite window at upper floor; the ground floor is now masked by a modern conservatory addition. Two further bays to the left contain dormerhead windows at first floor level. A single-storey modern addition extends from the outer left.

The east elevation displays a 4-bay main block with a recessed 3-bay block to the right, adjoined by a modern arcaded conservatory that links to further modern additions at the rear. A modern rendered 2-storey range of 7 bays in sympathetic style extends further right. The main block features a broad gable at the outer right containing a full-height square bay with tripartite windows. A broad canted bay occupies the ground floor to the left, centred on a tripartite window with single side windows and a blocking course. Symmetrical bays at first floor contain a centre French door with flanking narrow windows, all with dormerheads. A modern spiral fire escape with plain balustrade above the bay stands adjacent to the re-entrant right angle. Two symmetrical bays on the north return carry dormerheads. The recessed 3-bay block to the right features a broad outer right gable with a canted honey-coloured sandstone bay at ground level and a blocking course, bipartite at first floor. Two symmetrical bays to the left have dormerheads. A 12-bay arcaded conservatory sits on a continuing base course, with a fish-scale tiled keel roof and a forestair entrance on the north return.

The windows throughout are 8-pane sash and case at ground level, with 4-pane sash and case windows in the side windows of bays and 12-pane sash and case windows at first floor level. Plate glass sash and case windows appear on the outer left bay of the south elevation and on the ground floor of the recessed east block, with 4-pane sash and case windows at first floor level. The roof is covered in grey-green slate with tall corniced ashlar ridge and gablehead stacks. The gablets feature coped skews with kneelers and skewputts, and good gutterheads survive.

The interior features an elaborate late 19th-century scheme of eclectic Jacobean and classical styles. The entrance hall is entered through liver-coloured marble columns and finished in oak, with an arcaded gallery on the half-landing carried on fluted oak columns with Corinthian capitals. The plasterwork is Adamesque and delicate in character. Elaborate oak doorcases with heavy panelled doors and open pediments are found throughout, with a similar chimneypiece in the stair hall. The dining room contains an oak chimneypiece with brass lions and William de Morgan tiles. The drawing room features a compartmented ceiling with delicate moulding.