The Elms, 148 Whitehouse Loan, Edinburgh

William Notman, dated 1858. 2-storey, irregular-plan Baronial villa with extensive additions; now in use as Church of Scotland nursing home. Squared and snecked pink sandstone with polished ashlar dressings. Base course; crowstepped gables; 1st floor windows breaking eaves in pedimented dormerheads; chamfered reveals.

E WHITEHOUSE LOAN elevation: advanced buttressed entrance bay; architraved basket-arched outer doorway to recessed porch with heraldic panel set above; inner studded boarded door with decorative iron hinges. Single architraved window at 1st floor; cipher panel above; slit window set in gablehead; circular-section bartizans clasping angles to left and right; conical roofs; lead finails; slit windows to returns at ground floor. Blank gabled bay to outer left. Flat-roofed single storey addition with 3 bipartite windows to outer right.

S GARDEN elevation: near-symmetrical 3-bay; 4-light canted windows with lead canopies at ground to outer left and right; gabled single windows above; blank heraldic panels and slit windows set in gableheads; single windows flanking both bays to left and right. Central advanced tripartite window with lead canopy; bipartite window above; blank heraldic tablet set in pedimented dormerhead. 2-storey pitched-roofed additions adjoining to outer left.

N CLINTON ROAD elevation: single storey flat-roofed addition obscuring ground floor. Single window at 1st floor to outer left; bipartites in abled 2nd bay; stair window in advanced 3rd bay; doorway at ground and 2 single windows at 1st floor in advanced 4th bay; circular-section tower set in return angle between 3rd and 4th bays.

W ELEVATION: largely obscured by 2-storey pitch-roofed and rendered additions. Small-pane sash and case windows to E and N elevations; plate glass sash and case windows. Grey slate roof; corniced gablehead and ridge stacks.

INTERIOR: decorative plasterwork; original timber and marble fireplaces ; timber balustrade, kingposts and handrail; decorative leaded glazing pattern to stairwindow with stained glass cartouche.

GATEPIERS AND BOUNDARY WALLS: moulded surround to pedestrian gateway through slapping; 2 capped ashlar gatepiers with chamfered angles; high coped rubble boundary wall to Whitehouse Loan and Clinton Road; rubble mutual boundary walls.