17-18 Breadalbane Terrace, Edinburgh

This is a group of terraced housing constructed between 1868 and 1870 by the Edinburgh Co-operative Building Company. The development consists of four terraces arranged northeast-southwest, divided by Dalry Place, and a single half-terrace known as Breadalbane Terrace to the southwest. The design resembles similar housing schemes established by the company in Glenogle Park, Abbeyhill, and Leith Hermitage.

The terraces are predominantly two storeys high with attics, some of which are slightly stepped to follow the slope of the land. Each terrace comprises four blocks, with each block containing four houses – two with entrances on the northwest side and two accessible via a cantilevered platform and external forestair on the southeast side. The window arrangement is regular, with the ground floor windows flanking the forestair being narrower than those above.

The architectural style is simple, featuring squared, snecked and stugged sandstone with bull-faced stone to the gable ends. Margin lights are present, and some are painted. Shouldered windows are found on the Dalry Road elevation, and one on each floor of the central gable ends, with the first floor windows appearing on the outer gables. Brick forestairs are accompanied by outbuildings below, with some portions stuccoed, and the terraces are accessed by stone steps. Wrought-iron railings, featuring a twisted design, are present at Walker and Lewis Terraces.

The roofs are slate-covered, with canted dormers on the southeast slopes. Some later canted dormers and more recent, boxed dormers are found on the northwest slopes. Most chimneyheads have been rebuilt with flat skewings and are stuccoed.

The original timber sash and case windows, primarily with four panes, have been largely retained, with two panes at the splayed sides of the dormers. Original four-panel doors with rectangular fanlights are also present.

Each terrace originally featured saddleback-coped dwarf-walled gardens, front and back, with railings (many now missing), approached by cobbled footpaths off Dalry Place. Terraces are enclosed to the northeast and southwest by a coped rubble wall. Many original pine cone finialled drying poles remain.

Several alterations and additions have occurred. Walker and Lewis Terraces have been extended with shops along Dalry Road; Nos 15-29 (Walker) are entirely modern, while Nos 31-47 (Lewis) retain substantial detail including Ionic pilasters, consoles, and a fanlight above the ground floor door and window. Canted dormers are also present on the northwest elevation of Lewis Terrace.

Shouldered panels on Dalry Road at the centre of Walker and Lewis Terraces display an inscription and Masonic insignia on Walker’s, and a beehive motif on Lewis’s. Boxed-out dormers are located on Douglas and Argyll Terraces (one each), and Atholl and McLaren Terraces (two each). McLaren Terrace comprises only three blocks, with the block to the northeast being a two-house unit with a staircase hugging the skewed gable. Nos 9 and 10 Breadalbane Terrace feature a curved forestair. A newer brick building adjoins Breadalbane Terrace at the southern corner. The southern block of Lewis Terrace and two southern blocks of Argyll Terrace have been stonecleaned on both the front and rear elevations.