Janitor's House, Torphichen Street School, 27 Torphichen Street, Edinburgh is a Grade B listed building in the City of Edinburgh local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 5 February 1997. Education centre.

Janitor's House, Torphichen Street School, 27 Torphichen Street, Edinburgh

WRENN ID
old-cloister-root
Grade
B
Local Planning Authority
City of Edinburgh
Constituency
Edinburgh South West MP: Dr Scott Arthur (Lab)
Country
Scotland
Date first listed
5 February 1997
Type
Education centre
OS grid reference
NT 243 733
Coordinates
55.9471, -3.21245
Source
Historic Environment Scotland listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Janitor's House at Torphichen Street School, located at 27 Torphichen Street in Edinburgh, was designed by Robert Wilson in 1887. This two-storey building features a symmetrical classical style and is situated on a corner site. The principal elevation is made of cream sandstone polished ashlar, while the sides and rear are constructed from squared and snecked rubble. Notable architectural details include a base course, a dividing band course, a consoled cornice, and a blocking course, along with architraved windows.

On the south elevation, there is a central advanced three-storey, three-bay pedimented block, with the second-floor windows partially in-filled. This block is flanked by engaged polygonal towers topped with pilastered and domed cupolas. The building has two-storey, three-bay wings on either side, with lower two-storey, two-bay wings recessed at the outer left and right. The penultimate bays feature round-arched doorways with square-columned pedimented doorpieces, while the outer bays have corniced and architraved doorways.

The east elevation is asymmetrical, with an ashlar bay on the left and off-centre windows on the ground and first floors to the right. There is a single-storey wing adjoining the outer right, with a window to the left, and a two-storey wing at the far right. The west elevation is also asymmetrical, featuring an ashlar bay on the right with off-centre windows on the ground and first floors to the left. A single-storey canted wing is advanced to the outer left, displaying regular fenestration, and there is a two-storey wing at the far left.

The building has 15-pane timber sash and case windows, with six-pane upper sashes and nine-pane lower sashes. The roof is covered with grey slate and has a piended design, along with polygonal roof ventilators that have swept caps. Cast-iron rainwater goods are also present.

The interior was not seen in 1997. The Janitor's House is a two-storey, three-bay, symmetrical rectangular-plan classical house that adjoins No 25 Torphichen Street. It features base, band, and cill courses, as well as a cornice. The entrance elevation has a recessed central bay with a tripartite doorway, a panelled door, a fanlight, and a single window above, along with windows in the outer left and right bays. The south elevation facing Torphichen Street has a single bay with single windows on both floors.

Additionally, there are plain iron railing gates, corniced pedestrian gatepiers, and boundary walls and railings surrounding the property.

Local climate

Janitor's House, Torphichen Street School, 27 Torphichen Street, Edinburgh sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 970 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 76% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 53% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 43 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 81% of listed buildings. Of these, 25 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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