8 Sandford Gardens, Edinburgh

This is a pair of houses, numbers 5 Sandford Gardens, Edinburgh, built around 1826 by John Baxter of Portobello. They are part of a terrace of six houses and represent an example of early 19th-century classical architecture.

The houses are two storeys high with a basement, and are constructed from polished ashlar. The basement of number 5 is harled, while numbers 6 and 8 have a droved ashlar basement, and number 7 a rubble side and rear elevation. A band course separates the basement from the ground floor, and again the ground from the first floor. A cornice and blocking course complete the facade.

The principal (southwest) elevation features four ashlar steps with original cast-iron handrails leading to a deep-set panelled door in each house. The original fanlights above the doors have been altered, with a radial fanlight at number 5 and plate glass above the doors at numbers 6-8. There are rectangular windows at the first-floor level above each door, and windows to each floor in the centre and right bay. Number 5 has a basement window to the right bay, while numbers 6 and 8 have 19th-century vents in their basement, and a boarded door with glazed upper section. Fine cast-iron window guards with a lattice and Greek-key pattern borders are present at the first floor of numbers 4-5. Number 6 also features a cast-iron balcony/window guard of a different design; the balconies on numbers 7 and 8 are now missing.

The rear (northeast) elevation has a blank bay to the centre of each house. Windows are present on each floor of the outer bays. A later glazed porch has been added to the ground floor of number 5, and a modern glazed door with flanking windows is present in the basement. The rear of numbers 6-8 was not fully visible in 1994, but includes a full-height, shallow canted bay with a half-piended roof to the right of number 6.

The windows are generally 12-pane timber sash and case, except at number 5, where the ground floor windows have 4 panes and the first floor windows have 6 panes. The roof is covered in grey slate with coped skewes between each house. Rendered and coped mutual stacks are situated between numbers 4-5 and 5-6, while ashlar coped mutual stacks are present between numbers 6-7 and 7-8. Ashlar coped wallhead stacks are located at the front and rear of the southeast elevation. Mutual stacks to the rear of each property are constructed from the same material as those on the principal elevations.

Internally, number 5 retains working shutters, stone paving to the hall and stairs, a cast-iron banister, a black marble chimneypiece with a slate hearth in the ground floor front room, original cornices (now heavily painted), an oval cupola in the stairwell, and a white marble chimneypiece on the first floor front room with an intricate cornice including a Greek-key pattern. The interiors of numbers 6-8 were not inspected in 1994.

The boundary walls are constructed from droved ashlar, now weathered, with coping. Modern coping is present at number 7. Tall rubble garden walls run along the rear of number 5, and are not visible at numbers 6-8.