Stables And Offices, 38 Dick Place, Edinburgh

This is a pair of stables and offices, constructed in 1896 by George A Lyle, and later converted into a dwelling house with alterations in 1930 by Alexander Allan Foote. The building is a single storey with an attic, arranged in an L-plan with a service wing to the east. It is constructed of harled brick with red sandstone ashlar dressings and mock-timber framing.

The north elevation features a canted, flat-roofed ashlar porch with a projecting timber gable and windows to the left and right. Mythological beasts are attached to the gablehead, and a boarded door is flanked by carved wooden lions; a blank wall sits to the right. A small window is set into the gablehead of the return wing to the left, and a flat-roofed garage adjoins it. The west elevation displays two single windows with raised ashlar surrounds at ground floor to the left of the porch, above which is a row of six dormer windows, four of which are angled, with M-piend-roofed dormerheads. Single windows are present at ground floor and gablehead of the return wing to the right of the porch. The east elevation has tripartite and single windows at ground floor of the service wing, a secondary entrance to the return to the right, a bipartite window at ground floor of the main house, and a garage to the outer right.

The south (garden) elevation incorporates a recessed, single-storey, piend-roofed service wing with a bipartite window to the outer right. An advanced, single-storey bay, planned as a loggia in 1930, is positioned to the inner right, featuring a quadripartite window and exposed brick frame on an ashlar base. A tripartite secondary entrance is present to the return to the main house. A central ashlar bay with splayed angles, bipartite and two single windows, a two-leaf door, single windows to the splays, and a strip of seven dormer windows (four angled) above with double piend-roofed dormerheads are also visible. A modern external flue extends to the height of the chimney.

The windows feature a leaded-latticed glazing pattern to casement and sash and case windows, while the service wing has small-pane windows. The roof is covered with grey-green slate, with clay ridge tiles and finials. Four scroll-shouldered and corniced ashlar stacks are present, with harled bands to the stacks on the south elevation. Moulded eaves guttering and tall moulded cans are also noted.

The interior includes turned balustrades with carved panels. The smoking room features a vaulted plaster ceiling and wainscot panelling incorporating earlier, elaborately carved panels and a chimneypiece.

A high rubble boundary wall runs along the edge of Lovers’ Loan.