Cauvins Hospital, Willowbrae Road, Edinburgh

Cauvins Hospital, located on Willowbrae Road in Edinburgh, dates from around 1833 and incorporates earlier elements. Originally built as a 2-storey, 5-bay H-plan classical villa, it now serves as sheltered housing and features a modern extension at the rear. The building is constructed of droved ashlar stone, with coursed rubble at the rear. It has a pediment above the central bay, along with a base course, eaves course, and blocking course.

The principal elevation features a 2-leaf timber panelled door with a plate glass fanlight and a single-storey porch. The porch has an entablature decorated with wreaths (without triglyphs) in the frieze, supported by Doric columns in antis, with the inner columns fluted. The end bays of the building are slightly advanced, while the centre bay is also slightly advanced. The windows in the end bays have architrave mouldings and include a blind panel below the ground floor windows.

The north and south elevations each have 3 bays, with a base course, cornice, and eaves course. The south elevation is finished in droved ashlar, while the north elevation features dressed coursed rubble with angle quoining.

The rear elevation is 5-bay and includes a modern single-storey extension attached to the centre. It has regular fenestration, with coursed rubble on the projecting end bays and random rubble in the centre.

The building includes a 2-leaf timber panelled door and timber sash and case windows with 18-pane and 12-pane glazing, as well as lying-pane glazing in the centre bays of the east elevation. The roof is piended and covered with grey slates, featuring corniced stacks with polygonal ends and cylindrical cans, along with cast-iron downpipes.

The interior was not seen in 2002, but it is noted that there are many plasterboard partitions according to the Warden.

The boundary walls and railings consist of spear-headed cast-iron railings in front of the house, mounted on low ashlar coped boundary walls, which are between higher walls of dressed and coursed rubble, also coped, facing the road. There is a coped random rubble boundary wall at the rear.