18 Royal Terrace, Edinburgh

Royal Terrace, Edinburgh: No 18

A Grade A listed townhouse, part of an exceptionally long palace-front terrace designed by William Playfair between 1820 and 1824, with numbers 16 to 22 constructed in the early 1860s.

The terrace comprises 121 bays in total, presenting an extremely unified composition across its principal north elevation. The ground floor features arched and rusticated openings. The centre section rises to three storeys with an attic, punctuated by three three-storey and attic Corinthian colonnaded pavilions. Flanking sections to left and right comprise three-storey balustraded sections leading to further three-storey sections with three-storey and attic Ionic colonnaded pavilions. Two-storey balustraded sections occupy the outer left and right portions. All houses sit above basements.

The principal elevation displays droved ashlar to the basement level, V-chamfered rustication to the ground floor, and polished ashlar to the upper floors. The rear elevation employs predominantly coursed squared rubble with dressed margins. Detailing includes a base course, dividing bands between floors, an impost course to the ground floor, narrow band courses to the first floor broken by a window to each bay, and regular fenestration throughout. Basement openings are predominantly segmentally headed (except No 16), while ground-floor windows are round-headed, set within round-headed overarches.

The north (principal) elevation to No 18 comprises three bays. The basement area beneath the platt is blocked by a wall with predominantly two windows. The ground floor features steps and a platt overarching the basement recess, leading to a timber-panelled two-leaf door with a segmental fanlight and flanking margin lights. Windows occupy the remaining bays. Cast-iron balconettes adorn the first-floor windows. A band course runs above the second-floor windows, with a modillioned eaves cornice and balustraded eaves parapet to the outer sections. Pilaster strips divide the bays to the attic storey.

The south (rear) elevation presents a three-bay composition with a three-and-a-half-storey advanced centre bay. Band courses run between basement and ground floors, between ground and first floors, and between second and attic floors, with eaves band and blocking course. The glazing is predominantly plate glass and timber sash-and-case windows, with some bipartite and tripartite windows to the rear.

The roof employs double-pitch construction with central valleys, finished in graded grey slate with stone skews. Mutual corniced ridge stacks sit to the dividing skews, predominantly with circular cans.

To the front, cast-iron railings with dog bars and spear-head finials surmount the stone coping that edges the basement recess and platt. Wrought-iron lamp standards flank the platts. To the rear, random rubble boundary walls with flat coping define the garden, with spear-head finialled cast-iron railings to the end wall. A circular Roman Doric colonnade stands within the adjacent garden of No 21.

Interior

The ground floor contains a former drawing room (now forming the reception of a hotel) with a compartmented ceiling displaying excellent plasterwork and a classical grey marble chimneypiece. Large openings have been made through to No 19, the adjoining property. The lobby features a compartmented ceiling with strapwork detailing and good plasterwork.