68 Colinton Road, Edinburgh

This is a terrace of six two-bay houses located at 74 Colinton Road, Edinburgh, built between 1885 and 1886 by James Gowans. The houses are situated on a sloping site, with the basement level forming the ground floor at the rear. They are constructed of sandstone, using squared and coursed variegated rubble with ashlar dressings, and have droved ashlar raised quoins. Door and window reveals are chamfered.

The front elevation (southeast) features a canted door to the right of each house and a window to the left, connecting the ground floor with the basement level. The houses are linked by a bridge, with Nos 68 and 70 forming a mirrored pair with their canted doors situated in central bays. The ground floor apron incorporates Gowans' distinctive "stick-style" detailing, composed of thin vertical bands of ashlar alternating with vertical bands of squared rubble. First-floor windows break through the eaves within gabled dormerheads, featuring incised triangle and pen-nib carvings, and heavy coping. Sidelights are present at the canted doors. The southwest elevation mirrors the front elevation’s composition.

The northwest elevation presents four bays to the left, defined by two small central gables flanked by larger end gables carrying bargeboards dated 1886 at Nos 68 and 70. To the right, Nos 72-78 have a square bay rising over three storeys, with a canted window at the principal floor sweeping to a square shape at the first and basement floors, incorporating one window per bay. The basement and first floors have single windows, the latter breaking through the eaves. Bridges connect the principal floor of each bay with a narrow, corbelled, brick-built square projection topped with a pitched roof and a timber mullioned tripartite window (altered at No. 78).

The windows are timber sash and case, with two-pane lower sashes and eight-pane upper sashes. The roof is slated, and tall corniced chimney stacks display stick-style detailing. Originally, each house had six decorative cans on its chimneys; some remain. Stone finials are visible on the dormers at Nos 68, 70, and 78. Decorative cast-iron down pipes are present with brackets and gutterheads.

The interior was not inspected in 1992.

Distinctive cast-iron railings with individual gates, featuring vertical members that terminate in ball finials, run along the front of the terrace.