Burgh School, Park Avenue, Edinburgh

Burgh School, Park Avenue, Edinburgh

This is a substantial Victorian school complex of Grade B listed status, comprising a principal range with an eastern block and associated boundary structures.

The principal range, facing west, displays Victorian Gothic architectural character with sophisticated detail throughout. The west elevation is composed of multiple storeys and bay divisions. Two advanced two-storey gabled bays to the north flank a tall single storey bay at centre. The gabled bays feature hoodmoulded three-light pointed arch windows at ground level, with bipartite windows flanked by narrow windows at first floor and hoodmoulded blind trefoil panels in the gableheads. The recessed central bay contains a similarly detailed window set within a gabled bay with trefoil detail, closely flanked by set-off wallhead stacks. To the outer left stands a single storey bay with a hoodmoulded doorway with blank panel above, flanked by a tripartite window in a gabled bay and accompanied by an attached wallhead stack. Recessed single storey bays to the right feature doorways of the same detail, flanked by tripartite windows with decorative gabled ventilators set in the deep roof pitch above. To the outer right, nine two-storey bays display bipartite stair windows, one stepped and one pointed arch with hoodmoulded tripartite window at ground level. First floor fenestration comprises a central tripartite window flanked by bipartites, each breaking the eaves in gabled dormerheads, with further bipartites similarly breaking the eaves in flanking bays. Sawtooth coping runs across low, irregularly placed buttresses. A gabled return elevation to the south features a hoodmoulded tripartite pointed arch window flanked by narrow windows at ground level, with a hoodmoulded bull's-eye in the gablehead.

The east elevation of the principal range retains gabled bays to the north detailed similarly to the west elevation but without hoodmoulds. At the centre, a two-storey gabled projection was added by Robert Wilson in 1897 to recessed bays, featuring a pointed arch hoodmoulded tripartite window at ground level, three bipartites at first floor, and a trefoil in the gablehead. A single storey projection links the principal range to the east block, with an additional flat-roofed storey added in 1929. A similar single storey rectangular projection to the outer left also received a further storey in 1929. Single storey M-gabled bays adjoin the north return elevation, with a gabled stone bellcote set in the valley and trefoil detail to each gablehead.

The east block, designed by Robert Wilson and constructed between 1899 and 1901, is a largely symmetrical two-storey structure built in pinker, bull-faced, squared and snecked sandstone. The east elevation features a cill course at first floor level, with advanced gabled bays at the centre containing a central tripartite window flanked by single windows on each floor, pointed hoodmoulded panels to the first floor windows at centre and an arrowslit ventilator at the apex. Three recessed bays flank each side, each comprised of central bipartites breaking the eaves at first floor in gabled dormerheads, flanked by single windows. The west elevation displays eight advanced bays with regular fenestration at the centre, surmounted by an M-gable spanning six centre bays. A recessed gabled bay stands to the outer right, with linking bays to the outer left. At the centre rises a decorative leaded fleche with an apron, trefoiled arcade and crocketted pinnacles, topped with a gilded weather-vane finial.

The boundary structures, dating from 1875 to 1876, comprise snecked, stugged sandstone retaining walls with ashlar coping, stepped to the west with narrow gablet capped piers at intervals and simple railings. Rubble walls with semi-circular coping border the east and north sides. A large gabled stone pedestrian gateway to the south features buttress flanking with a segmental opening and trefoil panel in the apex, whilst a simpler gabled stone gateway stands to the north. Two pairs of decorative cast-iron arrowhead gates are fitted, with decorative wrought-iron railings to the east. Playground shelters abut the perimeter walls to the north and south.