11 Carlton Terrace, Edinburgh

11 Carlton Terrace is a significant example of an 18th-century town house designed by William Playfair between 1821 and 1825, and constructed from the late 1820s to the mid-1830s. It forms part of a long, hairpin-curved terrace of 19 classical town houses. Numbers 1-4 and 14-19 are rectangular, with straight three-bay frontages, while numbers 5-13 have wedge-shaped plans and curved four-bay frontages. The building is predominantly two storeys with a basement, and features a balustraded parapet; panelled parapets are present on numbers 1, 14 and 17. The basement is finished in droved ashlar, while the upper floors are in polished ashlar. The side and rear elevations are largely constructed of coursed squared rubble with droved margins.

Architectural details include a base course to the basement, a dividing band between the basement and ground floors, and another between the ground and first floors. A modillioned eaves cornice runs along the front elevations, while a simpler eaves band is visible at the rear. Raised door surrounds are topped with consoled cornices. Regular fenestration is a prominent feature with architraved and corniced windows; those on the ground floor have panelled aprons, while the first-floor windows have cast-iron balconnettes.

The principal, or northeast, elevation displays a painted basement beneath a platt, with a timber-panelled door featuring a two-light fanlight set within a segmental opening, alongside windows in the remaining bays. A window in the outer right bay is partially obscured by a mono-pitched extension of droved ashlar with two windows. Steps and a platt lead to the second bay from the left, where a recessed basement area contains a two-leaf timber-panelled door with a rectangular fanlight. A corniced mansard roof with two bipartite dormer windows is visible behind the balustrade.

The southwest, or rear, elevation is a three-bay design, dominated by a full-height, piend-roofed square-plan extension, added later.

Glazing is predominantly 12-pane, with 15-pane glazing to the first-floor front elevation and 8-pane glazing to the centre bay of the rear elevation, all within timber sash and case windows. The front has a flat roof with a mansard profile, while the rear has a pitched roof, both covered with graded grey slate. Stone skews and skewputts are present. The front elevation features a mutual ashlar stack, preceded by two octagonal flues on either side. A rendered mutual stack is located to the left and right at the rear, with all stacks corniced and topped with predominantly circular cans. Some cast-iron rainwater goods are also present.

Stone coping with cast-iron railings, featuring dog bars, spear-head finials, and a distinctive circled border, defines the front boundary, edging the basement recess and platt. A wrought iron lamp standard is situated to the right of the platt. The rear garden is bounded by random rubble walls with generally flat coping.