28 Queen Street, Edinburgh

A pair of three-storey terraced classical houses with basement and attic, built in 1789 and later altered. Constructed in droved Craigleith sandstone ashlar with polished dressings, each house measures three bays in width.

The facades display refined classical detailing. The basement is rock-faced, with channelled rustication applied at ground level. At the first floor, a cill and band course is interrupted by windows that may have been lowered. Between first and second floors runs a fluted band course. A swagged frieze runs across the elevation, broken at No 28 by enlarged windows. A dentilled cornice and blocking course completes the composition, raised to a solid parapet at No 29. Windows are regularly spaced with architraves to the first and second floors. Simple architraved doorpieces with consoled cornices occupy the outer bays at ground level; at No 28 this has been converted to a window.

No 29 features small decorative cast-iron balconies at first-floor level. No 28 displays a massive full-width lead-faced attic storey with a pair of canted windows. No 29 has a mansard roof with a pair of ashlar-fronted bipartite corniced dormers with slate-hung sides. The rear elevations are four storeys, with No 29 being deeper and featuring a central full-height bow.

Windows are timber sash and case: those at No 28 have four panes, while No 29 retains 15-, 18- and 9-pane windows (with plate glass to the dormers). The roofs are covered in grey slates with ashlar-coped mutual skews and reduced dressed stone mutual stacks (rebuilt in rubble to the west). Central and flanking recessed channels accommodate cast-iron downpipes and rainwater heads.

Interior: No 28

The Entrance Hall contains a fine enriched ceiling decorated with a circle within lozenge and subsidiary details, a cornice, and shaped corniced overdoors with tablets. Signs indicate a removed chimneypiece.

The former Dining Room is apsidal-ended, with dado and plaster panelled walls featuring swagged tablets above doors. A dentilled cornice and enriched ceiling with a shallow beam across the apse are present. Overdoors match those in the hall. A painted timber chimneypiece with fluted Corinthian pilasters, frieze and central tablet stands on the back wall. A two-leaf door within the apse provides access to No 29.

An eccentric rear right room features a single square corner at its far end and a painted timber chimneypiece with panelled pilasters, urns and tablet.

The oval rear left room (subdivided as cloakrooms) displays a pilastered window with swagged frieze, flanked by subsidiary windows, and three balancing corniced swagged overdoors.

A compact curving cantilevered stair rises through the house, with every third banister rendered in decorative cast-iron. A Vitruvian scrolled band marks the first floor. Enclosed lobbies at ground and first floors feature curved walls and doors reflecting the room plans, with corniced overdoors adorned with medallions and foliate decoration. At first floor, double doors lead to the former Drawing Room, set within the wall with a single swagged frieze, consoled cornice and a pair of arches overhead (the left door being false).

The former Drawing Room, subdivided in later use, contains a simple enriched ceiling with swags in an oval and a rose. Elaborate doorpieces are framed by panelled pilasters, with frieze featuring tablet and figures, and cornice. Splayed window reveals with enriched heads light the room. A modern chimneypiece has been installed.

A bow-ended rear right room (internal wall arrangement) features three doors to the bow, with the central door having a corniced overdoor framed with figures and an eagle. A stripped gesso chimneypiece displays panelled pilasters and fluted frieze, urns and swagged tablet, with bold modern marble insets. A dado and tripartite window are present.

The rear left room is subdivided, with a bowed outer wall, a central window flanked by cupboards, and a painted gesso chimneypiece with pilasters, urns and frieze. Dado panelling is present.

A further full flight of timber stairs was introduced in the late 19th century at the second floor, leading to the attic, with decorative contemporary cast-iron banisters partly supported by arcaded brackets. This flight divides a shallow fan-headed niche on the outer wall of the stairwell. Above rises a magnificent circular cupola supported on four arches and pendentives, decorated throughout with the finest neo-classical plasterwork incorporating circular trophy panels.

The second-floor rooms display 19th-century detailing, with grey marble chimneypieces to the rear rooms. The single front room has been subdivided. At attic level, a single front room is lit by dormers and rooflights, with a further timber stair to the garret.

Interior: No 29

The Entrance Hall is divided by a later glazed screen. The west wall contains a pilastered recess with a recent press; walls feature oval plaster figurines. A fine acanthus cornice and simple enriched ceiling with lozenge and rose are present, with a corniced overdoor and tablet to the stair hall.

The former Dining Room is virtually identical to that at No 28, but with a slightly more decorative ceiling and flat rather than moulded wall panels. No chimneypiece is present.

A single full-width rear room centres on a bow, with flat wall panels. Three pilastered windows in the bow and a further window to the right display enriched splayed heads. A dentilled cornice runs the length, with a window breast to the left. No chimneypiece is present, but a full-height niche occupies the right side. An overdoor matches those in the dining room.

The central stair hall contains a compact curved cantilevered stair with swagged frieze and decorative cast-iron banisters (alternating in pattern with those at No 28). A Vitruvian scroll marks the first floor as at No 28.

At first floor, the landing features a swagged frieze and corniced overdoors with similar frieze to the former Drawing Room.

The former Drawing Room contains an enriched ceiling with oval and rose identical to No 28, and splayed window reveals with panelled pilasters, enriched heads and swagged friezes. A full-height niche to the east wall faces a fine gesso chimneypiece with panelled pilasters, urns and foliate frieze and tablet, grey marble slips and an iron register grate. Plain doors complete the scheme.

A rear right room extends awkwardly into the bow (presumably formerly a press). A rear left room features a curious recess similar to that in the hall.

The second-floor landing has a shaped hand rail and a shallow niche as at No 28. An enriched circular cupola supported on arches and pendentives rises above (less fine than at No 28); a skylight, pitched rather than conical, contains a modern Velux window. A front left room features an oculus to the stairwell. An archway with a timber return stair accesses the attic.

Railings and Lamp Standards

Spear-headed cast-iron railings front both properties. Old wrought-iron lamp standards survive at No 29.