42 Drumsheugh Gardens, Edinburgh

This is a substantial Italianate-style terrace of townhouses built in 1878 by Peddie and Kinnear in partnership with John Lessels, located at 39 Drumsheugh Gardens, Edinburgh. The terrace comprises four storeys above raised basements, presenting a unified facade with main-door and common stair flats behind. A wider corner block to the north is slightly advanced and features canted bays. The basement area fronts the street and includes vaulted cellars and retaining walls.

The building is constructed of sandstone ashlar, with channelled ashlar at ground floor level. Entrance platts project over the basements. A moulded base course and cill course are present at ground floor, while similar moulded string and cill courses define the first floor, incorporating fielded panels and small rosettes in the bay windows. The second floor cill course becomes a cornice at the bay windows, and a further moulded cill course with fielded panels sits above the windows on the third floor. A consoled corniced eaves course marks the third-floor attic storey. Pilastered doorpieces are topped with rectangular fanlights, and deep brackets, sometimes paired, support a balustraded, corniced balcony that extends to the bracketed and corniced first-floor window. The corner block features a two-storey, corniced, three-light rectangular bay, some of which are canted to the north, with reeded Corinthian column mullions on the first floor and pilasters outside. Moulded architraved windows are found throughout, with bracketed and corniced detailing at the first floor, cornicing at the second floor, and square attic storey windows on the third floor.

The north elevation (facing Rothesay Place) has four bays and four storeys, with a slightly advanced chimney breast on the left, featuring small scrolls at first floor and a fielded panel at third floor. Fenestration is primarily to the right, with tripartite windows at the end bay. An architraved and corniced doorpiece is topped with a rectangular fanlight. A bracketed, corniced, and pedimented window is located at first floor, and corniced windows are to be found on the second floor.

The rear (west) elevation is of squared, coursed rubble with some ashlar quoins and ashlar cills. It features regular fenestration, including some tripartite windows at first floor, with advanced bays at ground and first floors.

The building predominantly has timber sash and case windows with plate glass, although four-pane windows are present in the attic storey. Corniced ashlar gable end and ridge stacks are topped with modern clay cans. Cast-iron railings sit on ashlar copes, edging the basement recess facing the street, accompanied by cast-iron rainwater goods.

The interior displays a highly decorative classical scheme, with detailed cornicing and large foliate ceiling roses throughout the first and second floors. Corinthian columns on the first floor boast intricate foliate capitals. There are pedimented doorcases throughout the first and second floors, as well as a dog-leg staircase with large cupolas, further decorative cornicing, and roundel panes. The building was converted to office use in 2008.

To the rear of the main building is a range of predominantly single-storey mews buildings constructed of coursed random rubble. Coursed random rubble boundary walls, with some ashlar quoins and copes (integrated with the mews buildings in places), enclose the area, alongside some later additions.