8 Carlton Terrace, Edinburgh

8 Carlton Terrace is a significant example of a late Georgian townhouse, designed by William Playfair and constructed between 1821 and 1825, with building continuing into the mid-1830s. It forms part of a long, hairpin-curved terrace of 19 similar houses. Numbers 1-4 and 14-19 have straight, three-bay frontages, while Numbers 5-13, including Number 8, have wedge-shaped frontages with a curved four-bay configuration. The building is predominantly two storeys high with a basement, and is topped by a balustraded parapet; panelled parapets are a feature of Numbers 1, 14, and 17.

The exterior is built of droved ashlar for the basement, polished ashlar for the upper floors, while the side and rear elevations are of coursed squared rubble with droved margins. Architectural detailing includes 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 and a simpler eaves band to the rear. Raised door surrounds are topped with consoled cornices. The fenestration is regular, with architraved and corniced windows, those on the ground floor featuring panelled aprons. Balconnettes of cast iron are found on the first floor.

The east, or principal, elevation has a painted modern timber door with a three-light fanlight beneath a small platform, with windows filling the remaining bays. A set of steps with a platt lead to the entrance of the third bay from the left, where a pair of timber-panelled doors with a triple-circle, rectangular glazed fanlight are located. The west, or rear, elevation is a two-bay configuration.

Most windows have 12 panes of glass; the first floor to the front has 15 panes. The windows are predominantly timber sash and case designs. The roof is double-pitched with a central valley, covered with graded grey slate, and features stone skewbacks and skewputts. Chimneys are mutual, with rendered stacks to the left on both the front and rear elevations, and an ashlar stack with a canted front on the right of the front elevation. The front chimneys have cornices with octagonal and circular cans. Some cast iron rainwater goods are present.

The front of the property is bordered by stone coping surmounted by cast-iron railings with dog bars, spear-head finials, and a distinctive circled border; a wrought iron lamp standard is located to the left of the entrance platform. The rear garden is enclosed by random rubble walls with flat coping.

The interior of the ground floor includes good plasterwork in the lobby, with two pilastered basket-arched openings towards the far end. The former dining room has corniced and pilastered door surrounds and a ceiling rose with shallow-relief decoration below the dado, though the fireplace is not original. The north-facing rear room is apsidal and has a painted stone classical fireplace and decorative plasterwork. The remaining ground floor rooms have simpler plasterwork. The first floor includes a former drawing room with a ceiling rose, corniced and pilastered doorpieces, and a rear room with an apsidal end and a grey marble classical fireplace. The stairwell features a circular cupola in a sail-vaulted well, stone stairs with cast-iron balusters, and decorative plasterwork on the landings and in the stair hall.