The Elms, 148 Whitehouse Loan, Edinburgh

The Elms is a two-storey Baronial villa, dated 1858 and designed by William Notman. Originally a villa, it is now used as a Church of Scotland nursing home. The building is constructed from squared and snecked pink sandstone with polished ashlar dressings. It has an irregular plan with substantial additions. The base course is prominent, and the gables are crowstepped. First-floor windows break through the eaves in pedimented dormerheads, and the reveals are chamfered.

The east-facing elevation onto Whitehouse Loan features an advanced, buttressed entrance bay. The architraved, basket-arched outer doorway leads to a recessed porch, above which is a heraldic panel. The inner door is studded and boarded with decorative iron hinges. A single architraved window is at first floor level, with a cipher panel above and a slit window in the gablehead. Circular-section bartizans clasp the angles to the left and right, each with conical roofs, lead finials, and slit windows to their returns at ground floor. A blank gabled bay extends to the outer left, and a flat-roofed, single-storey addition with three bipartite windows is situated to the outer right.

The south-facing garden elevation is near-symmetrical with three bays. It has four-light canted windows with lead canopies at ground floor to the outer left and right, and gabled single windows above. Blank heraldic panels and slit windows are set into the gableheads. Single windows flank both bays to the left and right. A central advanced tripartite window has a lead canopy, with a bipartite window above and a blank heraldic tablet within a pedimented dormerhead. Two-storey, pitched-roofed additions adjoin the elevation to the outer left.

The north-facing elevation onto Clinton Road has a single-storey, flat-roofed addition that obscures the ground floor. A single window is at first floor to the outer left, followed by bipartites in the second bay. A stair window is in an advanced third bay and a doorway with two single windows is in an advanced fourth bay. A circular-section tower is set into the return angle between the third and fourth bays.

The west elevation is largely obscured by two-storey, pitched-roofed and rendered additions. The windows are a mix of small-pane sash and case and plate glass sash and case. The roof is covered with grey slate, and corniced gablehead and ridge stacks are present.

The interior features decorative plasterwork, original timber and marble fireplaces, a timber balustrade, kingposts, and a handrail. The stairwindow has a decorative leaded glazing pattern with a stained glass cartouche.

The property is enclosed by moulded surrounds to a pedestrian gateway, two capped ashlar gatepiers with chamfered angles, and high, coped rubble boundary walls along Whitehouse Loan and Clinton Road. Rubble mutual boundary walls also define the site.