38 Royal Terrace, Edinburgh

38 Royal Terrace, Edinburgh

William Playfair designed this terrace between 1820 and 1824, with No. 38 built between 1823 and the early 1830s. The building forms part of an extremely long 121-bay palace-front terrace of townhouses. The composition features an arched and rusticated ground floor running the full length. At the centre stands a 3-storey section punctuated by three 3-storey pavilions with attic storeys and Corinthian colonnades. To left and right, flanking 3-storey balustraded sections lead to 3-storey sections topped with 3-storey and attic Ionic colonnaded pavilions. At the outer left and right are 2-storey balustraded sections. All houses sit above basements.

The principal elevation presents 3 bays. The basement features droved ashlar. The ground floor has V-chamfered rustication with round-headed openings in round-headed overarches. Upper floors are finished in polished ashlar with regular fenestration marked by base course, dividing bands, impost course, and a narrow band course at 1st floor level broken by windows to each bay. The rear elevation is predominantly coursed squared rubble with dressed margins.

To the north (principal) elevation: the left bay is 2-storey with basement and attic; the centre and right bays are 3-storey with basement and attic and are advanced. The basement contains windows to left and right bays and a 2-leaf timber-panelled door with 3-light fanlight to the centre bay, all set in segmentally headed openings. To the ground floor, the left bay features steps and a platt overarching a basement recess, leading to a timber-panelled door flanked by margin lights and topped with a segmental fanlight. To the upper floors of the left bay, an unbroken band course rises above the 1st floor windows, followed by an eaves cornice, balustraded parapet, and a dormer window to the roof. The centre and right bays feature giant attached Ionic columns to the 1st floor dividing the bays and supporting an entablature between 2nd and attic floors, with pilasters dividing the attic floor, an eaves cornice, and a blocking course. Cast-iron balconnettes run across the 1st floor to all bays.

The south (rear) elevation is a 2-bay elevation with a band course dividing ground and 1st floors, a cornice and band course dividing 2nd and attic floors to the left bay, an eaves cornice, and a blocking course. A small timber and glazed conservatory stands at ground floor level.

Glazing is predominantly 12-pane throughout. The ground floor and 1st floor to the front elevation feature 17-pane and 15-pane glazing respectively, while attic floors have 6-pane glazing. Glazing is predominantly set in timber sash and case windows. The roof is mansard to the left bay of the front elevation and M-roof with central valleys elsewhere, covered in graded grey slate with stone skews and skewputts. To the east, a mutual corniced ashlar ridge stack is surmounted by an octagonal flue; to the west, a mutual ridge stack carries predominantly circular cans.

To the front, railings edge the basement recess and platt, comprising a stone coping surmounted by cast-iron railings with dog bars, spear-head finials, and a distinctive circled border. To the rear, a random rubble wall with flat and saddleback coping forms the garden boundary; railings once existed at the south end but are now missing.

The interior has been subdivided into flats. The ground floor lobby features reeded pilasters framing timber-panelled dummy doors, a pendentived ceiling, and excellent plasterwork. The former dining room retains good plasterwork and a black slate classical chimneypiece, though the remainder of the ground floor has been much altered with few features surviving. The 1st floor former drawing room contains a white marble classical chimneypiece, moulded wall borders, good plasterwork, and a shallow relief patterned ceiling, with a double-width opening to the front room (east side) fitted with non-original doors; other 1st floor spaces have been substantially altered. Corinthian pilastered and corniced doorpieces appear throughout.

The stairs and landings retain significant original features. Stone cantilevered stairs feature ornate cast-iron balusters. Wrought-iron lantern brackets sit to the 1st and 2nd floor landings, with a cast-iron tray-rest to the 1st floor landing. The ground and 1st floor landings have pulvinated doorpieces with lion-head roundels at the corners; the 2nd floor has pulvinated doorpieces with thistle carvings at the corners. Above the stairs, a round cupola surmounts a sail-vaulted ceiling with good plasterwork.