13 Royal Terrace, Edinburgh

13 Royal Terrace, Edinburgh

This townhouse was designed by William Playfair between 1820 and 1824, with number 13 built between 1823 and the early 1830s. It forms part of an extremely long palace-front terrace of 121 bays, a unified composition of remarkable scale. The terrace presents a sophisticated architectural scheme with an arched and rusticated ground floor, and a centre section of three storeys plus attic punctuated by three Corinthian colonnaded pavilions. To left and right are flanking balustraded sections leading to three-storey sections with Ionic colonnaded pavilions, while two-storey balustraded sections occupy the outer ends. All houses have basements beneath them.

The elevational treatment is carefully controlled. The basement is finished in droved ashlar, the ground floor features V-chamfered rustication, and the upper floors are in polished ashlar. The rear elevation employs coursed squared rubble with dressed margins. The principal elevation is articulated by a series of courses: a base course, dividing bands between basement and ground floor, an impost course to the ground floor, a dividing band between ground and first floors, and narrow band courses to the first floor broken by windows to each bay. Band courses rise above the second floor, topped by an eaves cornice and balustraded parapet. Fenestration is regular throughout the principal elevation and predominantly regular to the rear.

The principal north elevation shows three bays across three storeys plus basement. The basement contains a timber and glazed door with blocked fanlight to the centre and a window to the left, both in segmentally-headed openings; a wall with partially blocking window stands to the right. The ground floor features a doorway to the right bay accessed by steps and a platt that ovearches a basement recess; the door is timber-panelled with flanking four-light margin lights and a segmental fanlight with petal-style glazing. The first floor displays cast-iron balconnettes to the windows. The south rear elevation is two bays across three storeys plus basement, with a small flat-roofed extension to the centre and a flat-roofed dormer window to the right.

The windows predominantly retain 12-pane glazing; the principal elevation shows 17-pane glazing to the ground floor and 15-pane glazing to the first floor, all set in timber sash and case windows. The roof is M-pitched with a central valley, covered in graded grey slate with stone skews and skewputts. Chimney stacks are of ashlar, those to east and west being mutual stacks surmounted by linked octagonal flues to front and rear pitches; a small ashlar wallhead stack stands to the rear, with predominantly circular cans throughout.

Railings and boundary works are substantial. To the front, edging the basement recess and platt, stone coping is surmounted by cast-iron railings with dog bars, spear-head finials and a distinctive circled border. To the rear, a random rubble wall with flat coping forms the garden boundary, with the south wall surmounted by cast-iron spear-head-finialled railings.

The interior retains significant original features. The ground-floor lobby contains a round-headed niche to the right and a compartmented ceiling, with a pilastered and corniced doorpiece leading to the stair hall, complete with margin lights and good ornamental plasterwork, though partly defaced. The former dining room features corniced and pilastered doorpieces, painted timber low wainscoting, and a classical grey and black marble chimneypiece with good ornamental plasterwork. The rear ground-floor rooms lack original features of interest. The first-floor former drawing room retains corniced doorpieces and good plasterwork, while other first-floor rooms have some plain cornicing. The stairs and landings feature cast-iron balusters with a cast-iron tray rest to the first-floor landing, and an oval cupola with deep cavetto surround above, accompanied by good plasterwork to the ceiling and landings.