66 Queen Street, Edinburgh

66 Queen Street, Edinburgh

A pair of mirrored 3-storey classical houses with basement and attic, built in 1791. The buildings are constructed in polished Craigleith sandstone ashlar with channelled rustication at ground level and flat long and short quoins. Both are three bays wide, though No. 66 is slightly wider. The outer bays feature tripartite doorpieces with columns and pediments; the friezes are fluted and frame 2-leaf panelled doors with plate glass fanlights, flanked by pilastered wings with stylised capitals. The door at No. 67 has been replaced by a fixed 8-pane window, though the steps and platt remain but are now railed off. The 1st floor windows are architraved with blind balustraded aprons and cornices. The 2nd floor windows have cill courses, swagged aprons and pilaster architraves supporting a full-width blank frieze and mutuled cornice. The roof is punctuated by a row of five Velux windows and a single timber tripartite piend-roofed dormer to the far right.

The rear elevation is of coursed rubble with near-symmetrical 4-bay design. The outer bays advance to 4 storeys, while the inner bays are 3-storey with attic; tripartite windows appear at ground and 1st floors, with tripartite piend-roofed dormers above. A single-storey flat-roofed office range, built in 1865 by Peddie & Kinnear, extends over the gardens and adjoining mews buildings, with a light well to the rear. The windows throughout are timber sash-and-case with 12 panes. The roof is covered in grey slates and features substantial stair cupolas that change the roof height. Ashlar-coped mutual skews and rendered stacks (reduced to the east) complete the exterior.

In 1865, Peddie & Kinnear made significant additions to the rear and carried out alterations. Further alterations followed subsequently, and the buildings were refurbished around 1985.

Interior

Both buildings contain work of very fine quality, with considerable though generally well-considered alterations accumulated over more than 100 years of legal use, including interconnecting corridors at all floors. Both have identical circular stair cupolas with coves decorated with wheat ears and delicate scrolls.

No. 66

The broader width of this building allows for an exceptional open Entrance Hall with inner porch, a corniced stone chimneypiece and a single fluted Corinthian pillar supporting the landing above. The lobby features an enriched ceiling with an octagon within an oval, decorated with four wheatsheafs and a central rose. A straight longitudinal stair with alternate cast-iron banisters rises to the 2nd floor, with a landing at the attic. The stair is ornamented with a swagged frieze at the 2nd floor and a scrolled foliate frieze below the cupola.

At ground floor, the front room contains an elaborate carved timber chimneypiece with pilasters, urns and grained gesso enrichments; the slips are veined grey marble with an inner bead, and there is a 19th-century cast-iron arched register grate. A grained dado runs around the room. The rear room has been divided to create a corridor to No. 67; it has a panelled dado, plaster-panelled walls and a similar chimneypiece painted white with marble slips and grate.

At 1st floor, the former Drawing Room has been subdivided to provide a passage and small room with a plain stone chimneypiece. It retains its panelled dado, later fitted shelves and bookcases, and a very fine fluted white marble chimneypiece with rosettes, a central tablet with an urn and veined orange marble slips, with the same type of grate as below (directly comparable with that in No. 64 Queen Street). The rear room has been subdivided to create a passage and retains a swagged frieze to the cornice, dado and a painted carved chimneypiece with fluted Corinthian pilasters, frieze and a central trophy panel, with brown marble slips. There is a lined closet to the rear with marble fittings and a thunderbox.

No. 67

The redundant Entrance Hall has a simple enriched ceiling with draped husks and a rose. The stair matches that in No. 66; a plain frieze appears at 2nd floor, and the attic landing is splayed at the corners with a swagged frieze to the cupola.

The former apsidal-ended Dining Room has been divided to create a corridor. It retains plaster-panelled walls, a panelled dado and a painted carved timber chimneypiece with urns, a rinceau frieze and grey marble slips. The rear left room has a simple moulded white marble chimneypiece with orange marble slips; the right light of the tripartite window has been removed to allow a door to the rear offices.

At 1st floor, the former Drawing Room had been subdivided but was restored in 1982; however, brackets and alterations visible on the north wall reveal later changes. It contains a fine enriched ceiling with interlaced plasterwork within ovals, a dado and a painted carved timber chimneypiece with a fluted frieze, figures and a central fox and hounds tableau (installed 1982) with veined orange marble slips. A swagged corniced overdoor, installed in 1982, probably came from the rear ground room of No. 66. The rear room has been subdivided to provide a corridor with a painted swagged timber chimneypiece.

Railings and Lamp Standards

The properties are fronted by cast-iron spearhead railings and two original wrought-iron lamp standards.