Johnsburn House, Johnsburn Road, Balerno, Edinburgh

Johnsburn House, Balerno

This is a 2-storey, asymmetrical L-plan Scottish Arts and Crafts house dating from before 1893, with possible later additions around 1900. The house displays Renaissance detailing and is finished in white-painted harl with pink and yellow sandstone margins and dressings. The stonework features chamfered arrises, dormerheads with broken segmental pediments and pyramidal finials, a moulded string course, and a sandstone eaves cornice.

The south-east (entrance) elevation comprises a 5-bay main block with a slightly later single-storey, 3-bay entrance porch and offices advanced in front of 4 bays to the left. Dormerheaded windows are symmetrically disposed on the main house in a 1-3-1 arrangement, with a narrow recessed blank wall to the left of the outer left dormerhead. A crowstepped single-storey lean-to block sits against the south-west elevation and features a round window at ground level. The 3-bay symmetrical entrance block and offices includes a 4th flat-roofed bay to the outer left. Three bays have shaped, coped, curvilinear gables terminating in scrolled terminals, with segmental-headed windows symmetrically disposed. The outer left bay contains a single window with a door at the left return. The main entrance is located at the outer right return and features a lugged and shouldered moulded sandstone doorcase with a keystone serving as the base for a cast-iron angle lamp. A round window sits immediately to the right of the door at ground floor, with a further window at ground outer right. A moulded string course divides the floors.

The north-west (garden) elevation presents an L-plan front with a 4-bay, M-gabled jamb advanced to the outer left, a 3-bay main block to the right, and an octagonal entrance tower in the re-entrant angle. Windows are symmetrically disposed at first-floor level of the M-gable, which is centred by a carved figurative gargoyle depicting a man holding a book. A small window sits at the centre of the left gable, with a glazed door to the right accompanied by a stone forestair with plain cast-iron railings. A bipartite window occupies the centre of the right gable, featuring a thick, panelled, shared grey sandstone mullion (possibly later). Finial blocks crown the apex of both gables. A bipartite window appears at ground level, with a gabled dormerhead to the right on the right return. The 2-stage, octagonal tower breaks the eaves line in the re-entrant angle. A corniced door at the centre is approached by 4 stone steps with a platt, flanked by narrow windows at different levels. A single pilaster window with flanked Renaissance-style block pediment occupies the centre at 2nd stage, with a figurative gargoyle at the junction of the tower and jamb. A roll-moulded eaves cornice runs around the tower. To the right, a 3-bay block is followed by a narrow bay immediately to the right, then 2 near-symmetrical bays, with a blank first floor in the outer right bay. First-floor windows sit directly under the eaves. A crowstepped lean-to extends to the outer right against the gable, featuring a round window on the garden elevation.

The north-east elevation comprises 3 bays. A broad crowstepped gable marks the outer left, with windows disposed off-centre at ground and first-floor levels. Two windows are symmetrically disposed at ground level in the bays to the right. A triangular pedimented dormerhead occurs at the penultimate bay, with a paired wallhead stack immediately to the right.

The roof is laid in thick red-brown slate with stone ridge tiles. Crowstepped gables and crowstepped mutual skews are present. Ridge stacks are harled and coped. Tall ashlar diamond-aligned wallhead stacks stand at the north-east and west. Cast-iron rainwater goods feature decorative square and bowed rainwater heads.

The interior contains a dark-stained panelled entrance hall with low ceilings and plain cornices. Plain, moulded sandstone chimneypieces are present throughout. The original stair is no longer evident but remains extant beneath the ceiling, the entrance now being via the garden tower.

To the west of the house, former stables aligned north-south have been converted to function rooms for a restaurant. They are rendered with masonry details, though modern windows have been inserted. A timber hoist sits on the ridge of the outer left stable. The grey slate roof features high coped skews.

A small bridge carries the avenue over John's Burn, constructed with 4 block balusters of roughly hewn sandstone slabs supporting a slab coping and terminating in crudely tooled vermiculated dies that echo the design of the gatepiers.

The boundary features corniced ashlar gatepiers with vermiculated bands, capped by large acorn finials on pedestal bases. A curved rubble wall with harl-pointing and semicircular coping continues as a very high wall eastward along Johnsburn Road.