War Memorial, Guthrie Court, 10 Lasswade Road, Edinburgh

War Memorial, Guthrie Court, 10 Lasswade Road, Edinburgh

This B-listed building was designed by G Sidney Mitchell and completed in 1885 as the Edinburgh Industrial Ragged School. It is constructed in parsonage style using pink rock-faced sandstone with polished red ashlar dressings, stone mullions to bipartite windows, and chamfered reveals.

The building forms a roughly U-shaped complex with ranges of varying heights to the south, west and east, enclosing a courtyard at the rear.

The principal elevation faces south, though this is no longer the main entrance. An advanced tall twin gabled bay projects at the centre, featuring a central doorway in a moulded surround with a small window above. Canted bays flank this at ground floor level, with bipartite windows to the first floor and windows in the gablehead to the attic storey. Tall three-bay wings adjoin, each with three windows at each floor and three small timber gabled dormers to the attic, forming a T with a long eastern range.

The eastern elevation now serves as the main entrance and presents an asymmetrical composition. A tall range of two storeys with attic extends for ten bays, adjoined to the north by a lower seven-bay range. The main block features a broad advanced gabled bay to the left of centre, containing a large pointed arched doorway at ground floor with glazed tympanum and timber door, and a bipartite window to the right with a small oblong window above. Two trefoil-headed bipartites at first floor are set within an arched panel with a blind oculus to the tympanum. The wing to the left has five windows at ground floor, three bipartites at first floor, and two timber dormers flanking a central gablehead with a wallhead stack and arrow slit opening. The wing to the right comprises five bays with tall bipartites at ground floor (two altered with stone transoms), three bipartites with single windows between at first floor, and three timber gabled dormers to the attic. The lower adjoining range to the north has a central canted bay rising through two floors, moulded with a band course featuring foliate carving. A foundation plaque to the first-floor apron bears the building's name and date, with a moulded cope to the blocking course and a timber dormer above. Flanking bays are symmetrical, each with tall bipartites flanked by single lights at ground floor and tall bipartites breaking the eaves in gabled dormerheads at first floor with two small windows flanking. A single advanced bay to the north has a three-light window at ground floor and a small window to the gablehead.

The western elevation comprises a long range with a harled, piended addition projecting outward. Single windows and doors punctuate the ground floor, tall windows occupy the first floor, a central wallhead stack rises through, and two timber dormers project to the attic. A single-storey boiler house and a single-storey piended range in red brick close the courtyard to the west and north.

The rear courtyard contains lower piended blocks projecting from the main building. A small single-storey five-bay gabled building at the rear, now subdivided into two houses, has a central doorway with two small windows to the right and an oblong window above, flanked by two tall windows. Two tall windows and a small window to the attic occupy the gable. A timber louvred belfry with pyramidal roof and finial crowns the ridge. Other outbuildings are positioned to the rear.

Original glazing features timber sash-and-case windows with small panes to the upper sash and plate glass or larger panes to the lower sash. Some glazing has been replaced in uPVC. Grey-green slates and red ridge tiles cover throughout, with ashlar coped skews and corniced ashlar stacks.

The interior has been much altered. A marble plaque in the entrance hall commemorates Thomas Guthrie, the founder.

Boundary walls are of low rubble construction with gablet cope and railings to Lasswade Road. Two pairs of ashlar gabled gatepiers, probably originally with lamps, support cast-iron gates. Behind the wall to Lasswade Road stands a 1914–18 War Memorial, a Celtic cross with incised ornament mounted on a plinth with a plaque.