Lodge, Dean School, 7 Dean Path, Dean Village, Edinburgh

Lodge, Dean School, 7 Dean Path, Dean Village, Edinburgh

This building comprises a former board school with an attached lodge, designed by Robert Wilson in 1874-5 with a later addition by Wilson in 1892. The main school building was converted to residential flats in 1985.

The main block is a substantial 2 and 3-storey structure with attic and raised basement to the rear, following a T-plan that became an F-plan after the later wing was added. It is built of squared snecked and stugged sandstone with polished dressings and quoins. A moulded first floor cill course runs across the façade. Windows are Tudor arched at ground and first floors, with pointed arched windows above, depressed at ground level and to the sides, all with chamfered arises.

The entrance elevation faces east and comprises 5 large symmetrical bays. A slightly advanced 2-bay gabled centrepiece projects forward, crowned with a belcote at the gable apex. The ground floor has bipartite transomed windows. An Edinburgh School Board plaque dated 1875 is mounted on the central gable between the ground and first floors, flanked by small single windows, with a stepped tripartite window above and a hoodmoulded oculus at the gable apex. The flanking bays feature bipartite windows at ground and first floors that break the eaves, with gabled first floor dormer-heads and blind oculi above. The far left and right bays are similar. The main entrance sits in a re-entrant angle to the north, covered by a later piend roof. A 2-storey flying link to the former lodge oversails the lane to the north.

The south elevation is broad and irregular, with deep basement storeys falling toward the Water of Leith where the later addition extends to the west. An irregular 2-bay gable to the east contains a ground floor doorway within a pointed arched surround, flanked to the east by a bipartite mullioned window. The first floor has irregular fenestration with twin pointed arched windows to the west and a rectangular window further west within the gable. At second floor level, a pair of pointed arched windows flanks a corbelled apex stack. The later advanced piend-roofed 4-storey, 2-bay wing to the right includes a small single-storey porch in a re-entrant angle, with regular fenestration although the terminal bay to the far right is missing windows.

The west (rear) elevation features projecting 3-storey blocks with raised basement at centre and right, both with 3-bay returns. The gabled central block contains carriage arches at ground floor, now filled as of 2008. An irregular single bay links to a 3-bay wing to the left and north, connected to the lodge via a flying link. Fenestration here is predominantly regular and rectangular.

The north elevation is a broad 2-bay gable end with the link to the lodge at the right. A single off-centre window appears at ground floor to the left, with paired pointed arched windows grouped to the centre at first floor. Second floor windows are pointed arched, flanking a corbelled wallhead stack.

Throughout, windows are 4- and 6-pane timber sash and case. The roof is multi-pitch with grey slates, ashlar skews, corbel skewputts, and corniced ashlar ridge and wallhead stacks (partly rendered). Cast-iron rainwater goods complete the external fabric.

The interior was converted to residential dwellings with predominantly later interiors dating from circa 1985 onwards.

The attached lodge is 2-storey with a raised basement, set on a narrow triangular site. It employs similar detailing to the main school. A narrow canted corner to the east displays regular fenestration with a gabled dormer-head, blind oculus, and thistle finial. Large first floor windows face north and west. A flying link to the main block oversails the lane below. The lodge is topped with a piended roof crowned by a wrought-iron finial.