Garden Walls And Gate-Piers, Challenger Lodge, 15 Boswall Road, Edinburgh

Challenger Lodge, located at 15 Boswall Road in Edinburgh, is a garden wall and gate-piers structure dating from around 1825, with later additions. The building features a single storey and basement at the front, and two storeys at the rear. It is designed in an austere Greek Revival style, characterized by a three-bay villa with a Greek Doric portico. The exterior is constructed of cream sandstone tooled ashlar, with dressed window surrounds, while the basement, sides, and rear are made of coursed rubble. Notable architectural elements include a base course, eaves cornice, and blocking course, along with architraved openings.

On the south (principal) elevation, there is a tetrastyle unfluted Greek Doric portico at the center, which rests on a three-stepped plinth. The entrance features a timber panelled door within a moulded surround, topped by a glazed fanlight composed of five circular panes arranged horizontally. This door is flanked by two single windows within the porch. The outer bays on the left and right also contain single windows with cornices. The east wing has a band course that separates the ground and basement stories, and it includes pedimented dormers that break the eaves.

The north (rear) elevation displays a regularly fenestrated full-height three-bay canted projection at the center, with single windows on both floors to the outer right. There are also additions to the outer left.

The windows predominantly feature stylised 20-pane glazing in timber sash and case style, with plate glass in the upper sash of the window to the right of the portico, in the dormers of the south facade of the east wing, and in the upper windows of the canted bay. The roof is covered with graded grey slate and has coped ashlar stacks with circular cans.

Inside, the entrance hall is square and features a cupola that sits on a dome supported by pendentives, showcasing good plasterwork that is in excellent condition.

The boundary walls and gatepiers consist of coped rubble garden walls. The gatepiers are square in section, featuring recessed panels and corniced, pyramidal caps.