14 Carlton Terrace, Edinburgh

14 Carlton Terrace is a large, classically designed townhouse built between 1821 and 1825 and completed in the late 1820s to mid-1830s, designed by William Playfair as part of a long, hairpin-shaped terrace of 19 houses. The building is rectangular in plan with a three-bay front elevation and is two storeys high with a basement. It is part of a group sharing Group Value with numbers 1-4 and 14-19, and adjacent to wedge-shaped houses with curved frontages. The exterior is constructed with a mix of materials. Droved ashlar is used for the basement, while polished ashlar forms the upper floors. Side and rear elevations employ coursed squared rubble with droved margins. The building features a base course to the basement, a dividing band between the basement and ground floors, and the ground and first floors. There's a decorative modillioned eaves cornice to the front and a simpler eaves band to the rear. Door surrounds are raised and adorned with consoled cornices, and windows have regular placement with architraves and cornices. Ground floor windows have panelled aprons, while those on the first floor have cast-iron balconnettes.

The north (principal) elevation is slightly more prominent, rising to three storeys and featuring a panelled parapet above a modillioned cornice. The basement level has a timber-panelled door with a three-light fanlight in the centre bay, alongside windows to the left and right. The ground floor has steps and a platt leading to a timber-panelled door with a rectangular fanlight in the right-hand bay. The rear (south) elevation is simpler, with two bays.

Original plate glass remains in the front windows, while the rear and basement windows have 12-pane glazing, all within timber sash and case frames. The roof is double-pitched with a central valley, covered in graded grey slate with stone skews and skewputts. Chimneys are rendered or ashlar, with corniced tops and predominantly circular cans. Some cast-iron rainwater goods are present.

The front of the property features stone coping with cast-iron railings including dog bars, spear-head finials, and distinctive circled borders, edging the basement recess and platt; a wrought iron lamp standard sits to the left of the platt. A random rubble boundary wall, with flat coping, encloses the rear garden.

Internally, the ground floor lobby has a pilastered timber screen with a central door and flanking lights. A round-headed niche is situated to the right, along with good quality plasterwork and a compartmented ceiling. The former dining room retains a black marble classical chimney piece and decorative plasterwork, including a ceiling rose, and the back room (west side) has further good plasterwork. The stair and stair hall are notable for an oval cupola in the compartmented ceiling, stone stairs with cast-iron balusters, a cast-iron tray rest on the first floor, wrought iron lamp brackets on the first and second floors, and good plasterwork on the ceiling, landings, and ground floor.