Janitor's House, Lorne Street Primary School, 7 Lorne Street, Edinburgh

Janitor's House, Lorne Street Primary School, 7 Lorne Street, Edinburgh

The primary school building dates from 1875–6, probably designed by Leith-based architect James Simpson. It was raised to three storeys sympathetically by A & R McCulloch in 1898. The main structure is a five-bay symmetrical rectangular-plan building with slightly advanced end bays.

The principal elevation features polished sandstone ashlar on the north front, while the side and rear elevations are stugged, squared and snecked with polished ashlar dressings. A substantial base course runs beneath, with a string course at first-floor level terminating at the centres of the side elevations, raised over a frieze at the centre of the principal elevation. The frieze is carved with "Leith School Board, Lorne Street School". A cornice runs at the eaves, continuous around the entire building.

The principal elevation displays tripartite windows at the centre and to the outer bays, with bipartite windows in the bays flanking the centre. All windows feature chamfered cills and mullions, transomed at ground and first floors. First-floor windows have round-arched upper lights, hood-moulds and plain armorial panels over the outer bays, with circular decorative features to the centre. The west elevation comprises seven bays with bipartite and transomed windows at ground, first and second floors. The east elevation has six bays, with transomed windows at ground floor bays three to six and first floor bays two, and six, and bipartite windows at first and second floors in bay two. Eight-pane timber sash and case windows are used throughout, with additional four-pane upper lights to transomed windows. The building has a flat roof with a low cement-rendered flat-roofed addition to the south-west corner, and cast-iron downpipes.

The Janitor's House is a single-storey structure with an attic, arranged as a four-bay dwelling. The west-facing principal front has slightly advanced and gabled sections to the first and third bays with corresponding gables to the blank rear elevation. Polished sandstone ashlar walls predominate, except for a random rubble lower portion to the rear wall. Windows and gables feature chamfered arrises and crowstepped details throughout.

On the principal west front, the first bay contains a large opening to the ground floor with a projecting flat-roofed canopy supported at one corner by a cast-iron column, and a stepped tripartite window set within the gable above. The second bay features an entrance door with raised margin and a stone dormer breaking the eaves. The third bay has a bipartite window at ground level within a gable, with a single window above. The east rear elevation is blank, with random rubble at ground level (indicating a previously adjoining or intended building) and ashlar above, topped by two chimneyheaded gables. The north elevation has two bays at ground floor with an additional slit window to the outer right, and a single window in the gablehead above. Four-pane timber sash and case windows are used throughout. The house has a grey slate roof with cast-iron gutters and downpipes.

An outbuilding to the south of the main building is single-storey with crowstepped gables matching those of the Janitor's House. It features mullioned and transomed windows, squared and snecked walls with ashlar dressings, and a grey slate lop-sided M-roof with terracotta ridge-tiles.

A playshelter with timber construction stands nearby, its random rubble rear east elevation contrasting with a squared and snecked, corniced and parapetted north wall with ashlar dressings. Vertically-boarded timber doors face the west elevation, supported at the centre by a cast-iron column. The roof is piended grey slate.

The gatepiers and boundary treatment comprise bull-faced ashlar dwarf boundary walls to the north and south of the playground and to the west front of the Janitor's House. Square ashlar sandstone gatepiers have stop-chamfered corners, bases and pyramidal caps, with the southern pier slightly more ornate. Modern railings and gates are present, except for the railing to the Janitor's House and the south gate, which retains decorative detailing and a lamp bracket over.