12 Carlton Terrace, Edinburgh

William Playfair, designed 1821-1825, built from late 1820s-mid 1830s. Part of long hairpin-curved terrace of 19 classical town houses; Nos 1-4 and 14-19, rectangular-plan houses with straight 3-bay front elevations; Nos 5-13, wedge-plan houses with curved 4-bay front elevations; predominantly 2-storey and basement with balustraded parapet; panelled parapets to Nos 1, 14 and 17. Droved ashlar to basements; polished ashlar to upper floors; predominantly coursed squared rubble with droved margins to side and rear elevations. Base course to basements; dividing band between basement and ground floors and ground and 1st floors; modillioned eaves cornice to front elevations, eaves band to rear elevations. Raised door surrounds with consoled cornices. Regular fenestration; architraved and corniced windows with panelled aprons to ground floor; architraved windows with cast-iron balconnettes to 1st floor.

NE (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: to basement, beneath platt, timber-panelled door with blocked fanlight; windows to remaining bays, window to outer right largely obscured by mono-pitch roofed extension of droved ashlar with 2 windows. To ground floor, to 2nd bay from left, steps and platt overarching basement recess leading to timber door with rectangular fanlight. To roof, behind balustrade, corniced mansard roof with 2 bipartite dormer windows.

SW (REAR) ELEVATION: 3-bay elevation; to centre, full height piend-roofed square-plan extension (later addition, see Notes).

GLAZING etc: predominantly 12-pane glazing; plate glass to 1st floor to front elevation; 8-pane glazing to centre bay to rear elevation; 4-pane glazing to dormers; 9-pane to extension to basement; glazing predominantly in timber sash and case windows. Flat roof with mansard profile to front, pitched roof to rear; graded grey slate to pitched and mansard sections; stone skews and skewputts. To front, mutual ashlar stack preceded by 2 octagonal flues to left and right; to rear, rendered mutual stacks to left and right; all stacks corniced with predominantly circular cans. Some cast-iron rainwater goods.

RAILINGS AND BOUNDARY WALLS: to front, edging basement recess and platt, stone coping surmounted by cast-iron railings with dog bars, spear-head finials and distinctive circled border; wrought iron lamp standard to right of platt. To rear, forming boundary of garden, random rubble walls with predominantly flat coping.

INTERIOR: to ground floor: to lobby, encaustic tiled floor, corniced and pilastered doorpiece, compartmented ceiling, good plasterwork; to former dining room, classical black marble chimneypiece, corniced and pilastered doorpieces, good plasterwork including ceiling rose; to rear room (E), painted stone classical chimneypiece, good plasterwork; simple cornicing to remainder of ground floor.