13 Regent Terrace, Edinburgh

13 Regent Terrace is a significant example of a late Georgian townhouse, designed by William Playfair and constructed between 1826 and 1833. It forms part of a long terrace of 34 classical three-bay townhouses, originally designed with two storeys, an attic, and a basement. Many have since been extended with an additional third storey. The terrace is punctuated by two three-storey, 18-bay pavilions (Nos 11-16 and 23-28), each with a three-bay projecting section, and a 12-bay, three-storey section at the western end (Nos 1-4). The terrace is stepped to follow the slope of the road.

The principal elevation is constructed with droved ashlar for the basement and polished ashlar for the upper floors. The rear elevation is predominantly coursed squared rubble with dressed margins, with the third floor rendered. Architectural details include a base course, dividing bands between the basement and ground floor, and between the ground and first floors. A continuous cast-iron trellis balcony with a Greek key border runs along the first floor, and there is a second floor cill course and an eaves cornice. The painted doorpiece features fluted attached Greek Doric columns. The windows are regular in their arrangement and architraved on the ground and first floors, with panelled aprons below the ground floor windows. The rear elevation has predominantly regular window placement.

The southeast (principal) elevation is three storeys and basement. At basement level, a timber-panelled and glazed door with a fanlight is centrally located, flanked by windows. The ground floor incorporates steps and a platt leading to a recessed area, which contains a two-leaf timber-panelled and glazed door with a letterbox fanlight.

The northwest (rear) elevation is four storeys and three bays, with a flat-roofed, rendered extension to the centre bay and a single-storey extension to the left.

The windows are predominantly plate glass to the front, while the rear and basement windows to the front have predominantly 12-pane glazing, with 20-lying-pane glazing in a bay on the ground and first floors at the rear. The windows are timber sash and case. The roof is an M-shape with a central valley, clad in graded grey slate with stone skews and skewputts. Corniced mutual ridge stacks are present to the east and west, with octagonal flues and predominantly circular cans. A cast-iron downpipe with an ornamental hopper is located on the right side of the front elevation.

The front is enclosed by stone coping topped with cast-iron railings featuring dog bars, spear-head finials, and a distinctive circled border, along with a wrought-iron lamp standard. A random rubble boundary wall with flat coping defines the rear garden.

The interior has been subdivided into flats, with some unsympathetic alterations. The ground floor lobby features a geometric and encaustic tiled floor, pilastered walls, a round-headed niche, a compartmented barrel vaulted ceiling with good plasterwork, and a screen of pilasters and fluted Ionic columns. Some good plasterwork remains in the second-floor rooms. A stone cantilevered staircase has ornate cast-iron balusters, with good plasterwork in the cupola and landings, above an oval cupola set within a sail-vaulted ceiling and deep cavetto surround.