5 Belgrave Crescent, Edinburgh

John Chesser, 1874; later additions to rear. Crescented terrace comprising 3-storey basement and attic, 2-bay Free Renaissance townhouses with prominent rectangular and canted bays; advanced end terraces at Nos. 1-3 and 19 -21. Sandstone ashlar. Entrance platts oversailing basement area. Banded base course; moulded cill courses at 1st and 2nd floors. Consoled corniced eaves course. Rectangular dormers with large triangular pediments, linked by balustrading. Corniced doorpieces with paired console brackets, moulded architraves, rectangular fanlights and narrow sidelights (from No. 4 - 21). Corniced and balustraded 2-storey, 3-light bays, rectangular at ground floor, canted at 1st floor. Bracketed and pedimented 1st floor windows with moulded architraves. Moulded architraved windows at 2nd floor with bracketed cills (tripartite above canted bays).

E (BELGRAVE CRESCENT LANE) ELEVATION: 2 bays. Droved sandstone ashlar, with ashlar quoins to left (S). Sandstone ashlar stair, irregular arrangement of doors at ground floor. Moulded cill course at 1st and 2nd floors, integrated with round arched windows to centre. Rectangular blind windows at ground and 1st floors, pedimented at 2nd floor. Round arched stairlights to centre with small pane glazing pattern. Coursed sandstone attic storey, stepped to rear; integrated with corniced ashlar gable end stacks.

N (REAR) ELEVATION: 5 storeys. Coursed squared rubble with some droved ashlar quoins, rybats, cills and lintels. Roughly regular fenestration with some paired windows at 1st and 2nd floors. Some boundary walls to rear; many integrated with later garages fronting onto Belgrave Crescent Lane.

W (BELGRAVE PLACE) ELEVATION: 3 bays. Dormer to left (N). Balustrade integrated with tall wallhead stack; some balustrade missing to centre (2009). Blind windows to right (S) at ground, 1st and 2nd floors, to centre at 2nd floor.

Plate glass in timber sash and case windows, some small pane glazing to Nos. 2 and 8. Some later 20th century glazing at 2nd floor and attic. Corniced ashlar ridge and gable end stacks (some later replacement) with octagonal clay cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods integrated with stonework. Cast-iron railings on ashlar coping stone edging basement area to street.

INTERIOR: characterised by highly decorative classical scheme with intricate cornices. Large entrance vestibules with cornice works and encaustic tiled floors, predominantly timber stairs with carved newel posts, topped by large cupolas with decorative plasterwork frieze. Highly decorative plasterwork and some large marble fire surrounds to ground and 1st floor drawing rooms. Later conversion to flats throughout (2009).