24 Carlton Terrace Mews, Edinburgh

Carlton Terrace Mews, Edinburgh

This is a group of grade B listed mews houses laid out by William Playfair around 1825 and built gradually between the 1820s and 1880s. The mews comprises two-storey rectangular-plan houses of plain design arranged around a pentagonal cobbled courtyard, with single-storey additions to the rear. The buildings are constructed in squared and snecked coursed ashlar sandstone with plain skews on gables and dividing walls.

The mews originally served as carriage houses and stabling, evident from former carriage entrances to ground floors, hayloft doors breaking the eaves, and wallhead dormers. Ground-floor windows are plain with projecting sills. Piended dormer windows and square-headed dormers punctuate the eaves of the first floors across the ranges.

The north range comprises seven mews houses (nos 23–29). Number 23 has an altered ground floor with a door and four windows, with paired piended dormer windows to the first floor. Number 24 features a later door and timber garage doors with a rooflight to the left. Number 25 has semi-glazed garage doors and a bipartite window, with small windows and dormers above. Number 26 has a central entrance door with timber garage doors and square-headed dormers. Number 27 contains a central entrance door with an altered and heightened first floor. Number 28 is largely concealed by shrubs. Number 29 has a small door with rectangular fanlight and a raised gable-headed window formed from a former hayloft door.

The north-east range (nos 30–31) features paired stone gablehead dormers to no 30 and a stone gabled dormer window to no 31.

The south-east range (nos 32–35) shows varied fenestration including semi-glazed timber garage doors, windows, and letterbox fanlights. Number 34 has an altered stable entrance now serving as an entrance door, with multiple windows including a former hayloft door. Number 35 contains long semi-glazed garage doors and rooflights.

The south-west range (nos 36–42) includes entrances with timber panelled doors and fanlights, semi-glazed double doors, and paired dormer-headed windows. Numbers 40 and 41 are a canted section with former stabling converted to bipartite windows.

Rear elevations are largely single-storey, partially blind or concealed by garden walls, with later square windows and central entrance doors accessing sloped paths. A painted wrought-iron gate with pointed bars and plain uprights leads to rear access routes.

Roofs are pitched grey slate with lead and replacement aluminium flashing and valleys. Painted cast-iron rainwater goods are present throughout. Some mutual coped stone stacks with paired cans survive, though many have been replaced. Roof lights include Velux units and surviving two-pane cast-iron Carron lights.

Many ground floors have been converted to provide modern garaging or workshop space, with living accommodation retained on first floors. The mews is divided by a cobbled lane separating it from the adjacent Regent and Royal Terrace Mews. The properties surround a cobbled courtyard with raised garden ground to the centre.