11 Hillside Crescent, Edinburgh

This is a near-symmetrical, classical terraced house designed by W H Playfair in 1820. It is three bays wide with three storeys and a basement, and has two additional storeys to the rear. The front elevation is of polished ashlar, with droved ashlar to the basement and squared rubble with droved margins to the rear.

The principal south elevation features stone steps leading to a two-leaf timber-panelled door with a letterbox fanlight. A projecting band separates the basement and ground floors, and a plain entablature divides the ground and first floors. A cill band runs along the second floor, topped by a modillioned eaves cornice, a blocking course, and a balustraded parapet. Fluted Greek Doric engaged columns divide the bays on the ground floor. The fenestration is predominantly regular, with moulded architraves to the first and second floor windows and segmental-headed windows in the basement.

The rear north elevation is three bays wide, with a two-bay bow to the left. It has an eaves course and a blocking course surmounted by plain railings. A two-storey, piend-roofed offshoot is located to the far left, and an advanced bowed open colonnade with moulded cast-iron columns, supporting the first floor, extends to the right. The ground floor colonnade has a tripartite bowed section on the left and a single window on the right, and is covered by a lean-to roof. A continuous cast-iron trellis design balconette with Greek fret borders and scrolled wrought-iron brackets supports the third-floor bow. Individual ornamental cast-iron balconettes feature on the fifth-floor windows. Some unsympathetic alterations to openings are visible to the right bay excluding the fifth storey; an external metal staircase obscures much of the bay from the ground to the fourth floor.

The windows are predominantly fitted with plate glass within timber sash and case frames. The roof is pitched at the front, rising to a flat roof at the rear, covered with grey slate. Stone skews are present. Corniced ashlar ridge stacks with predominantly circular cans are visible on the front elevation.

Cast-iron railings with spear-head finials, spear-headed dog bars, and a distinctive Greek key patterned top border edge the basement recess and platt.

The interior ground floor features a screen of two pairs of fluted Ionic columns in anta in the lobby, along with a compartmented ceiling and good plasterwork. The former dining room has a bowed inner wall, a black slate chimneypiece, a corniced doorpiece, and good plasterwork. The rear room has bowed inner and outer walls, corniced doorpieces, and good plasterwork. The first floor’s former drawing room has been opened up to the rear room, with a bowed outer wall to the rear and a suspended ceiling (plasterwork may remain above). The second-floor front room (east) includes a classical grey marble chimneypiece, corniced doorpieces, and a plasterwork cornice. The staircase and stair hall have stone steps with cast-iron balusters, plasterwork friezes, and a blocked-off cupola. Some good plasterwork cornices are also present. A plaster bas-relief plaque is located above the door on the first-floor landing; a round-headed arch on the ground floor leads to a semi-circular domed area providing access to the principal rooms.