Gate lodge to Donaldson's Building of Edinburgh Academy (former Donaldson's School For The Deaf), 54 Henderson Row, Edinburgh

Gate lodge to Donaldson's Building of Edinburgh Academy (former Donaldson's School For The Deaf), 54 Henderson Row, Edinburgh

This single-storey, eight-bay gate lodge dates from the earlier 19th century and is built in a simple classical style. It is rectangular on plan with walls of droved ashlar sandstone. Associated gatepiers stand to the south, with boundary walls to the north and west. These structures were constructed between 1823 and 1824 to serve the main school building (listed separately), which was purpose-built to the designs of James Gillespie Graham for the Edinburgh Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. The buildings are located on the northern edge of Edinburgh's New Town and currently form part of the neighbouring Edinburgh Academy. The gate lodge and its associated structures form the main entrance to the site from Henderson Row, with a further boundary wall to the rear on Glenogle Road.

The gate lodge has largely regular-spaced openings on the main northeast elevation, with two door openings either side of centre and a later small window opening to the right of centre. The three bays to the northwest are thought to have been rebuilt around 1957. There is a single window opening on the southeast elevation. The southwest rear elevation adjoins the neighbouring tenement and boundary walls. A coal store at basement level at the south end of the building is accessed by external stairs.

The building features a projecting base course and moulded eaves cornice with a continuous blocking course. The roof is piended and slated with two sets of paired octagonal ashlar chimneystacks. The openings have raised margins and the windows are predominantly six-over-six timber sliding sashes. A projecting timber porch protects the southernmost entrance, with a gabled front on decorative metal brackets. An additional three-bay former workshop range stands to the northwest, set back from the line of the main gate lodge. This is plainer, having a piended slate roof and no decorative details.

The interiors of the gate lodge and the adjoining former workshop were not seen in 2019.

The main entrance to the south of the site, from Henderson Row, comprises two ashlar sandstone piers flanking a vehicular entrance to the centre, with two smaller outer piers forming pedestrian entrances to either side. The piers are ashlar sandstone with chamfered edges and pyramidal caps with moulded cornicing. The opening is flanked by a dwarf wall of ashlar sandstone with a projecting base and copings, topped with spear-headed cast iron railings. The gates are replacements and are excluded from the listing.

Randomly coursed rubblestone walls with semi-circular copings line the west and rear north boundaries of the site. There is a secondary vehicular entrance to the west on Saxe Coburg Street which dates from the later 19th century. This has ashlar red sandstone piers and an arched gateway with double-leaf timber gates.

The main school building is located at the centre of the site. There are a number of other ancillary buildings along the western boundary, all of which are excluded from the listing of the main building.

In accordance with Section 1 (4A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997, the following are excluded from the listing: gates, mid to late 20th century extensions to the rear of the East and West Wings of the main building, and various ancillary buildings along the boundary wall to the west of the main building. These structures are excluded from the listing as they are later additions and are not of special architectural or historic interest.

The Edinburgh Institution for the Deaf and Dumb was founded in 1810 and occupied a number of different premises within Edinburgh's Old Town. It provided deaf children from all social backgrounds from all over Scotland with board and education, although some attended solely as day pupils.

In 1821 a two-acre site known as Distillery Park was feued from the Heriot Trust and designs for a new building were provided at no cost by the noted Scottish architect James Gillespie Graham. The chosen site was located on Henderson Row in Stockbridge, an area of the New Town that was still under development, although many of the plots had been laid out by this time. The construction cost was met by a combination of personal subscriptions, parish collections, an exhibition tour that demonstrated the work of the Institution, and the sale of the Institution's previous premises in Chessels Court. Building work was completed in May of the following year at a cost of around £7,300.

The main building is first shown on Kirkwood's plan of 1823, captioned as the 'New Deaf and Dumb Institution'. It is shown as rectangular on plan, positioned at the centre of the site, which was bound by the newly constructed Edinburgh Academy to the east and Gabriel's Road to the west.

The associated gate lodge, boundary walls and gatepiers are thought to have been part of Gillespie Graham's original scheme and are therefore contemporary with the main building. The gate lodge is not shown on historic maps until James Knox's map of 1834, and is also shown on both Campbell and Kay's maps of 1836. However, its absence from earlier maps may be a result of the map scale and detail rather than because it had not yet been constructed.

The present footprint of the gate lodge, rectangular on plan with an additional building adjoining to the northwest, is first shown clearly on the Ordnance Survey Town Plan of 1852 (published 1853), along with the gatepiers to the south and the boundary walls. Additional outbuildings are shown in the northwest corner of the site, but these were removed by the early 20th century (1905 Ordnance Survey map, published 1908).

The gate opening on Saxe Coburg Street is not shown until the Ordnance Survey Town Plan of 1876 (published 1878-81), which was then called West Claremont Street. It is therefore not part of the original design and was added around the mid-19th century. An earlier gateway is shown on the Ordnance Survey Town Plan of 1852 (published 1853), located a short distance to the northwest of the present opening on Saxe Coburg Street. However, this had been removed by the Ordnance Survey Town Plan of 1894.

The layout, educational methods and daily routine of the school were described in a newspaper article from 1864. The report also described the vocational skills that were taught, in addition to the standard lessons. The girls learnt housework and were given sewing tuition, whilst the boys were given some training in tailoring, shoemaking or printing. The shoemaker's and tailor's workshops were noted as being housed in the gate lodge and were attended by a skilled workman for two hours every afternoon.

The gate lodge underwent a series of alterations in the mid-20th century. Around 1939 a doorway on the north elevation was altered to form a window and the northern part of the main east elevation was rebuilt around 1957 by J.D. Cairns and Ford. This is evidenced by the difference in the colour of the stonework. There have been various modern additions, including the addition of roof vents to the north section, security cameras, lights and satellite dishes.

The Ordnance Survey maps (published 1912 and 1931) show that a series of ancillary buildings were constructed along the western boundary wall throughout the 20th century. It is believed that the gates were replaced in the late 20th or early 21st centuries. These are all excluded from the listing.

The Institution was granted royal patronage in 1823 but it was not until 1911, on the accession of George V, that it was allowed to incorporate the word 'Royal' into its title. It then became the 'Edinburgh Royal Institution for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb'. In 1938 the Edinburgh Institution and Donaldson's Hospital were amalgamated under the title 'Donaldson's School for the Deaf'. The Henderson Row building became the school's junior department and the Donaldson's Hospital building at West Coates became the senior department, where a large new building expanded the existing facilities. In 2008, the school vacated the Donaldson's Hospital building at West Coates and relocated to a new campus in Linlithgow. The buildings at West Coates have now been converted into apartments.

In 1977 the Donaldson's site was acquired by the neighbouring Edinburgh Academy to the east. The deaf children were relocated to the West Coates site and the two adjoining campuses on Henderson Row were amalgamated. The main building was subsequently renamed 'The Donaldson's Building' and now houses the Rector's office, and the English, Geography and Art Departments. The gate lodge building remains in use by Edinburgh Academy.