3 Blantyre Terrace, Edinburgh

This is a terrace of eight two-storey and attic, two-bay houses, with a three-storey, curved corner tenement to the southwest, built around 1879-88 by George Anderson, a local builder. The houses are constructed of cream sandstone with ashlar facing on the front and squared and snecked ashlar at the rear. The ground floor windows are pilastered and have a decorative frieze and cornice. First-floor windows are similarly pilastered with segmental-arched tops set into raised panels. Moulded cills run along the windows, and an eaves cornice and parapet top the building. Dormers alternate between triangular and segmental pediments (some lugged). The windows have ashlar mullions and pilasters with moulded capitals. Each house features a deep-set panelled front door with a rectangular plate glass fanlight and narrow sidelights framed by pilasters carrying a consoled cornice, leading to a tiled vestibule and hall.

The northeast elevation, facing Merchiston Place, is a three-bay structure over a basement with a slightly projecting central bay. The entrance door is centrally located and accessed by an oversailing staircase constructed of infilled ashlar with decorative railing. Above the entrance is a blocking course acting as an apron to a round-arched first-floor window with a heavy cornice resting on stylised consoles. An ashlar dormer with a triangular pediment sits in the valley between the outer bays’ gables. The outer bays contain single windows on each floor, and curvilinear gables with corniced stacks (now truncated).

The southeast elevation, facing Blantyre Terrace, has a ground floor band course and a string course that continues up to the capitals of the pilasters. Each house generally includes a full-height canted window in the left bay, dormer windows above with scroll-flanked bases, and an entrance door in the right bay. An exception to this pattern is found at numbers 11, 13, and 15, which feature mirrored elevations with canted windows to the left and entrance doors to the right. Numbers 3, 5, 13, 15, and 4 Merchiston Place have basements accessed by infilled steps. Numbers 3, 5, and 4 possess finialled pediments. Dormer windows at numbers 7, 9, and 11 break the parapet line to create attics. Number 17 Blantyre Terrace is a six-bay tenement incorporating two curved bays that turn a sharp corner. These curved bays contain tripartite windows to the left and a bipartite dormer above; single windows and a dormer feature to the right. A four-bay section has a blank bay to the left of centre with a pedimented wallhead stack. A doorway is located in the central bay, with a single window and dormer above. The bay to the right of that features a full-height canted window with a bipartite dormer window above, followed by a single window and dormer in the outer right bay.

The northwest elevation, facing Rochester Terrace, is characterized by plain ashlar margins and lacks segmental arches. It is a three-bay design with a central, pilastered doorway and rectangular plate glass fanlight. Single windows are present in each bay on each floor, with the exception of a blank bay in the right-of-centre ground floor. A single roof velux is also present. The windows are predominantly timber sash and case, with mostly plate glass glazing, some four-pane, and some sidelights containing etched or stained glass borders. The roofs are covered with Scotch and green slate, with lead flashings. One wallhead stack exists (as noted previously), along with mutual stacks featuring octagonal cans. Moulded eaves gutters and gutter heads are present throughout. The interior was not inspected in 1992. Coped dies terminate flights of steps, and ornamental cast-iron railings are found at numbers 4, 3, 5, 13, and 15.