2 Palmerston Road, Edinburgh

Dated 1868. 2-storey, L-plan Baronial style villa with 3-storey tower and service wing; subdivided into 3, 1954. Squared and snecked rubble with polished ashlar dressings and quoin margins. Base course; chamfered reveals.

W (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: engaged round entrance tower corbelled to square above eaves at 2nd floor set in re-entrant angle to left of centre. Roll-moulded shouldered doorway; heraldic tablet above and hoodmoulding with foliate stops; decorative gun loops flanking to left and right; panelled door; plate glass fanlight; 2 single windows at 1st floor; bipartite windows at N and W elevations of 2nd floor; attenuated pyramidal roof with finial above and swept eaves.

Single windows at ground and 1st floors in bay to outer left. Full-height canted window to outer right with etched glass lower panels at ground floor, dividing cornice and swept canopy with scalloped lead flashing; single gablehead window above. Castle emblem of the City of Edinburgh set in tablet above 2 narrow painted glass windows with hoodmould at ground floor of bay to inner right; tripartite window at 1st floor; datestone and gablehead window above.

S ELEVATION: blank; single storey flat-roofed garage (1954) adjoining.

N ELEVATION: 2-bay main house; single windows at ground and 1st floors to outer right; secondary entrance with modern porch at ground floor to outer left; single windows above. Single storey gabled service wing (extended 1887) adjoining to outer left; irregular fenestration; decorative gun loop to W elevation (inside porch). 2-storey addition (1887) to rear with single dormerheaded window breaking eaves.

E ELEVATION: 2-storey addition to outer right; single windows at ground floor to E and S elevations; single dormerheaded windows at 1st floor (2 to S and 1 to E). Regular fenestration in remaining 2 bays to main house; secondary entrance with plate glass fanlight at ground floor to outer left.

Plate glass sash and case windows to W elevatiuon; predominantly 4-pane sash and case elsewhere. Grey slate roof with ashlar gablet coping to gables and bracketed skewputts; 19th century timber gabled dormer to N; box dormers to S and E; 1 wallhead and 3 gablhead coped stacks; lead flashing; moulded eaves guttering; some original rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: encaustic tiled vestibule; cast iron balustrade and timber handrail; decorative plaster mouldings throughout.

BOUNDARY WALLS AND GATEPIERS: low saddleback wall to street at W, rising to high coped wall to street to N 1 pair of rubble gatepiers; 1 pair of ashlar gatepiers with pyamidal copign, chamfered angles and incised panels (similar to No 9 Palmerston Road).