4 Redford Road, Edinburgh

Four Redford Road, Edinburgh

This complex comprises five almshouse buildings constructed between 1891 and 1928, arranged around a courtyard setting. The buildings were designed by Robert Wilson (1891) and John A Carfrae (1902–1928), with some later additions. Earlier buildings are constructed in sandstone with grey slate roofing, while later buildings feature rendered finishes with red tiles. Most windows have been replaced with non-traditional uPVC.

4 Redford Road (1902, J A Carfrae): A single-storey cottage in T-plan with deep eaves and broad half-timbered bargeboarded gables. Built in squared, snecked sandstone with red sandstone ashlar dressings. The advanced gable to the northeast contains a timber boarded door set in a stop-chamfered depressed-arch architrave with small flowers carved in the spandrels. The inscription "FLEMING HOME OF REST 1903" is carved to the right of the door. A mullioned bipartite window is positioned to the left. A 4-light canted window sits below a bracketed gablehead to the southeast. The southwest elevation displays three bays with asymmetrical gables to the outer bays. A later two-window flat-roofed extension extends to the northwest. The roof is graded grey slate with red ridge tiles. Corniced and coped chimney stacks carry red clay cans.

15/1–4 Thorburn Road (1891, R Wilson): A single-storey row of six cottages in rectangular plan with a bargeboarded M-gable and lower modern extensions to the northwest and southeast elevations. King-posted gabled porches occupy the penultimate bays on both southwest and northeast elevations, flanked by small windows; other bays contain mullioned bipartite windows. The walls are squared, snecked brown sandstone with droved red sandstone ashlar dressings. Timber boarded doors with plate glass fanlights sit below the porches on the southwest elevation. The door to the left bears the inscription: "WILLIAM SMALL MERCHANT EDINBURGH BEQUEATHED THIS COTTAGE TO THE AGED CHRISTIAN FRIEND SOCIETY OF WHICH HE WAS ONE OF THE FOUNDERS AND ITS FIRST HON: SECRETARY. THINE HEARTS DESIRE." The door to the right is inscribed: "THIS COTTAGE IS DEDICATED TO EMILY COLDSTREAM WIFE OF THE DONOR JOHN COLDSTREAM W.S. ONE OF THE VICE-PRESIDENTS AND THE FIRST CHAIRMAN OF DIRECTORS OF THE SOCIETY MAY 1892." The extensions to the northeast contain timber boarded doors and windows beneath the porches. The roof is graded grey slate with red ridge tiles. Corniced chimney stacks carry clay cans.

15/9–15 Thorburn Road (1906, J A Carfrae): A single-storey block of cottages in U-plan with a piended roof, bell-cast to the southwest elevation. The design incorporates Scots Renaissance style cartouches and dentilled eaves and gables to the southwest elevation. The building is constructed in painted roughcast with sandstone dressings and a sandstone base course. Timber panelled doors with decorative-glazed fanlights in plain architraves face the courtyard. The southwest elevation contains uPVC doors with decorative-glazed fanlights; decorative cartouches above each door feature putti-heads and scrolled decoration, inscribed "AC JS" above the left-hand door and "1907" above the right-hand door. Regular fenestration appears on all other elevations. The roof is graded grey slate. Chimney stacks are coped and carry clay cans.

15/17–22 Thorburn Road (1928): A two-storey building with single-storey wings. A central brick-arched pend forms the focal point, with small gables to the sides featuring jettied-out sections at first floor below. Forestairs to the upper flats occupy the outer bays, with depressed arches below forming porches to the downstairs flats. Roughcast renders the main walls with sandstone cills; the base course and arch dressings are red brick. The southwest elevation contains a sandstone architraved window above the central arch with a moulded apron below, dedicated to the memory of Jean Guthrie and dated 1928. Half-glazed timber panelled doors serve the upper and lower flats; two doors at ground level pass through each arch below the forestairs. Original painted timber benches remain below the arches. Regular fenestration appears on other elevations. Tall, shouldered wall-head chimney stacks rise to the northwest and southeast elevations. The roof is red tile on a bell-cast piended form. Corniced chimney stacks carry red clay cans.

15/26–31 Thorburn Road (1928): Similar in arrangement to 15/17–22 Thorburn Road but without the central arch. An M-gable occupies the centre with a single door below the forestairs. A stone plaque with moulded frame at the centre bears a dedication to William Small and William Porteous Small, dated 1928.

Ancillary Features

A bronze sundial, without gnomon, stands on a later sandstone plinth. The face of the sundial is dated 1620 (inscription very faint) and reads: "LET OTHERS TELL OF STORMY HOURS / I?LL ONLY COUNT THE SUNNY ONES."

Gates to Redford Road, probably by Thomas Hadden, are constructed of wrought iron and hinged to wrought-iron posts topped with decorative Arts and Crafts flower finials.

Boundary walls, gatepiers, and other gates: Low coped snecked sandstone boundary walls run along Thorburn Road and Redford Road. The main entrance to Thorburn Road features red brick gatepiers and rendered quadrant walls, with two-leaf decorative cast-iron gates. A single decorative cast-iron gate serves the side entrance.