14 Magdala Crescent, Edinburgh

14 Magdala Crescent, Edinburgh

This terrace of 2-storey houses with basement and attic, Grade B listed, was built by John Chesser between 1869 and 1876. The first four properties (Nos 24-21) have basements; the remainder do not. The houses are arranged as 2-bay units with canted, mansard attic bays.

The buildings are constructed in polished, channelled sandstone ashlar with polished dressings; the basement is finished in droved sandstone. A base course runs along the frontage, with band courses at ground level and the canted bay, string courses, and a banded eaves course beneath the cornice. The doorpieces feature elaborately foliated consoled cornices, each containing a panelled timber door (often 2-leaf or partly glazed) with fanlight and margin-paned surround, block cill, and a consoled cornice to the margins of the window above. Round-headed, finialled, keystoned timber-framed dormers rise above at roof level. The canted bays have tripartite dormers to their polygonal mansard roofs, comprising smaller round-headed, finialled, keystoned dormers flanking a central dormer of the same design. Gable skews are coped.

On the west front elevation, alternate pairs of houses are slightly advanced (Nos 11 and 12, 15 and 16, 19 and 20, 23 and 24). The basement of Nos 24-21 has a window beneath the entrance platt to the bay to the right, with door and fanlight at centre and a window to the central face of the canted bay at left. At ground level, a doorpiece sits in the bay to the right, with a single window above. Both ground and first floors have 3-light canted bays to the left, and a 3-light canted dormer at the bay to the left at roof (No 24). No 11 is a 3-bay composition with a doorpiece to the central bay at ground, a single window above, and a round-headed, finialled, keystoned timber-framed dormer at roof. The flanking bays contain 3-light canted bays at both floors, though their mansard dormers have been modernised with multi-paned glazing.

The north (Douglas Crescent) elevation is a 4-bay, 2-storey composition with attic and basement. At the right stands an advanced 2-bay gabled bay with a single basement window to the left, a pair of ground-floor windows to the right (the right window now blocked, with margins and bracketed block cill), and a single first-floor window to the outer left. A blocked round-headed window with margins and block cill sits in the gable. To the left is a recessed bay with a basement window and a round-headed, keystoned wood-framed dormer at attic level. The outer left contains a canted bay with 3-light windows at each floor and a matching canted dormer at attic. No 1A Douglas Crescent forms a single-storey elevation to the left, its bays marked by advanced piers. It contains a bipartite window to the outer right, a deep-set panelled timber door to the bay to the right, a plain bay to the left, and a modern garage door to the outer left bay.

The south (Eglinton Crescent) elevation comprises a 3-bay, 2-storey composition. A single gabled bay set at an angle sits at the left, with a 2-bay section to the right and a pitched-roofed single-storey extension adjoining further right, beyond which stands a screen wall. The gabled bay has margins to centred, blocked windows at each floor, with a consoled cornice at first-floor level. The gable window is round-headed, and a gablehead stack rises above. The 2-bay section has a door at ground to the left of the gabled bay, a margin-paned window above, and outer-right windows at both ground and first floors; the first-floor window has a consoled cornice and a small flanking window to the left. A bipartite dormer with segmental-arched pediment rises above. The single-storey extension has a narrow light to its outer left, a wide metal-framed casement window to the centre, and two large modern skylights to the roof. A coped screen wall adjoins at the right, featuring boarded doors and flanking pilasters.

Glazing is principally 2-pane timber sash and case (multi-pane to No 18). The roof is covered in grey slate with fish-scale tiling to the mansards. Stacks are coped, channelled sandstone ashlar with tall cans, mostly original and moulded octagonal in section. Cast-iron rainwater goods are in place throughout.

Spike-headed railings set in coping line the street frontage to Nos 21-24 and No 1A Douglas Crescent, and extend to ashlar steps and entrance platts. Nos 11-20 have modern fencing and railings. Coped, stugged, squared and snecked sandstone ashlar boundary walls run along the street frontage.