18, 20, 22 Gray's Loan, Edinburgh

This is a substantial, late 19th-century villa designed by Edward Calvert in 1888, located on Gray’s Loan in Edinburgh. It presents as a 2-storey and attic, 3-bay rectangular building with two lower, rear service wings.

The front façade is constructed of cream sandstone ashlar, while the sides are of coursed and squared rubble with ashlar dressings, and the rear is of square and snecked stugged rubble with ashlar dressings. A base course, band course above the ground floor, and a 1st floor cill course are present. A prominent Vitruvian scroll frieze sits below a heavy eaves cornice. Decorative angle pilasters, carved and panelled at ground floor with paired pilasters at 1st floor, add to the richness of the design, along with panelled aprons to the 1st-floor windows. The windows are stilted segmental-arched and shouldered, featuring ornate foliate capitals to the columns, mullions, and pilasters.

The south-east elevation, the main entrance front, features a segmental-arched recessed panel in the central bay. A grand doorway is framed by paired red granite columns on panelled ashlar pedestals. The doorway has carved roundels in the spandrels and a carved segmental pediment, sheltering a 2-leaf panelled door with a rectangular plate glass fanlight. A single window sits above the doorway. To the left is a full-height rectangular bay with tripartite windows at both ground and 1st floor, while the right bay features a full-height canted window with a 1-2-1 configuration. The roof is punctuated by three dormers with segmental pediments.

The north-west rear elevation has two lower, parallel 2-storey wings with mansard roofs. Single windows are at ground floor, and segmental pedimented attic windows are in the end walls and returns. A later addition is a stone porch with a cornice and coped parapet, containing a keystoned basket-arched doorway framed by shafts with carved stops; one stop is foliate while the other is the letter 'M'. A Venetian stair window is contained within an ashlar-fronted box dormer with a parapet, flanked by corniced wallhead stacks on the main block. Small dormers are positioned to either side, and a bipartite window is located in the ashlar-fronted box dormer on the northeast elevation, also framed by corniced wallhead stack; this is complemented by a Greek key pattern frieze.

The north-east elevation, which faces Gray's Loan, features segmental-arched windows with a banded cill course at both ground and 1st floor. Single windows are in the left and centre bays, and two windows are in the right-hand ground floor bay, with a bipartite window above. Similarly, the southwest elevation displays segmental-arched windows, also with a banded cill course. Bipartite windows are on the left, and the centre bay features a bipartite window at ground floor and a single window at 1st floor. A steel fire escape stair is also present. The rear wings continue the design, with bipartite windows on the ground floor and segmental pedimented dormers above.

The villa has timber sash and case windows with plate glass glazing, a green slate piend roof with lead flashings, and seven wallhead stacks, notably lacking cans. Moulded eaves gutter. Internally, the villa features a tiled vestibule and hall, and an open timber stair with a stair window depicting birds and flowers. A tall boundary wall with semi-circular coping, replacement gates, and railings enclose the property.