46 Brighton Place, Portobello, Edinburgh

These are two early 19th-century classical terraced houses, number 48 and number 46 Brighton Place, Edinburgh, built around 1824 by John Baxter of Portobello. Number 46 was subsequently subdivided in 1926. Originally conceived as a pair with single-story flanking pavilions, the house at number 46 was later raised to two stories around 1926. The houses are slightly set back from the street.

The architectural style is classical. The front facades are polished ashlar, with deep channeling to the ground floor of number 48, and stugged ashlar to the basement and pavilions of number 46 (with polished ashlar on the first floor). Number 48 has droved ashlar to its basement and pavilions. Other materials include squared sandstone to the ground floor, harled first floors on the northeast side, harled rear elevation of number 46, and rubble on the northwest elevation and rear of number 48. Horizontal bands of stone delineate the basement, ground floor, and first floor; a cill course runs along the first floor. Cornice, blocking courses, and coping stones also define the facades.

The main elevation features a four-step approach to a recessed modern panelled front door within each house's outer bay. Original cast-iron handrails flank the steps at number 46, while number 48 has a concrete handrail. Plate glass fanlights are above each front door and first-floor window. The intermediate bays have windows at each floor, and basement windows are present in the inner bays of each house and centrally in number 46. The wing of number 46 has windows on each floor, while the pavilion of number 48 incorporates a garage door and a door to the pavilion’s outer portion.

The northeast elevation shows a modern, rendered garage and a two-leaf panelled door, leading to number 1A West Brighton Crescent, with a narrow, consoled doorpiece above. The rear elevation (northwest) is not fully visible.

The principal elevation features plate glass timber sash and case windows, while the rear has a mix of plate glass and 12-pane timber sash and case windows. The roofs are grey slate, piended in style. The houses have rendered and coped mutual stacks at the front, brick and coped mutual stacks at the rear, a wallhead stack to the southwest, a formerly rendered and coped wallhead stack to the southeast, a brick and coped wallhead stack to the rear of number 46, and a shouldered, rendered and coped stack to the rear of number 48. The interiors were not inspected in 1994. Boundary walls are constructed of droved ashlar with coping, and originally included railings.