7 Carlton Terrace, Edinburgh

7 Carlton Terrace is a significant example of early 19th century Edinburgh town housing, designed by William Playfair and constructed between the late 1820s and the mid-1830s. It forms part of a long, hairpin-curved terrace of nineteen classical townhouses. Numbers 1-4 and 14-19 have straight, three-bay frontages, while numbers 5-13 have wedge-shaped plans with curved, four-bay fronts. The terrace is predominantly two storeys high with a basement, and features a balustraded parapet, with panelled parapets to numbers 1, 14 and 17.

The building's exterior is constructed from droved ashlar to the basement, polished ashlar to the upper floors, and predominantly coursed squared rubble with droved margins to the side and rear elevations. A base course defines the basement, with dividing bands marking the levels between the basement and ground floors, and between the ground and first floors. A modillioned eaves cornice runs along the front elevations, while a simpler eaves band is present at the rear. Raised door surrounds are topped with consoled cornices. The windows are regularly spaced, are architraved and corniced, with panelled aprons on the ground floor, and architraved with cast-iron balconnettes to the first floor.

The principal (east) elevation features a timber-panelled door with a four-light fanlight beneath a platt in the basement, alongside windows to the remaining bays. The ground floor has a platt overarching a basement recess, leading to a timber-panelled door with narrow margin lights and a rectangular fanlight, positioned in the third bay from the left. A dormer window is visible to the left of the roof. The west (rear) elevation is three bays wide and includes a two-storey, piend-roofed advanced bay in the centre.

The windows are predominantly 12-pane, with 15-pane glazing to the first floor front elevation, and plate glass to the ground floor front elevation. Most windows are timber sash and case. The roof is double-pitched with a central valley, covered in graded grey slate, and features stone skews and skewputts. Ashlar wall-head stacks, one canted to the left and one rendered to the right, are present at the front, while rendered and ashlar stacks are found on the rear. All stacks are corniced with octagonal and circular cans. Some cast-iron rainwater goods are visible.

Stone coping with cast-iron railings featuring dog bars, spear-head finials, and a distinctive circled border edges the basement recess and platt at the front. A wrought iron lamp standard is positioned to the left of the platt. A random rubble boundary wall with predominantly flat coping defines the rear garden boundary.