Dundas House, 36 St Andrew Square, Edinburgh

Dundas House is a substantial building on St Andrew Square in Edinburgh, initially constructed in 1771 to a design by William Chambers. It has undergone several significant alterations over the centuries, notably by Archibald Elliot II in 1825 and 1828, William Burn in 1836, John Dick Peddie in 1857, and Gratton & MacLean in 1958. Originally a free-standing Palladian villa with a formal forecourt, it has been extended considerably to the rear to create extensive banking premises.

The original house is a symmetrical, three-storey, five-bay villa constructed from polished cream sandstone ashlar. The ground floor is rusticated, while the windows are architraved with pediments above the first-floor windows. A prominent tetrastyle Corinthian portico, topped with a band course and bearing a gilded Royal coat of arms (added in 1794), forms the building’s central feature. A rusticated porch was added to the portico in 1828. A delicate scrolled frieze runs along the building with a modillioned and dentilled cornice and blocking course above. The windows are timber sash and case windows with 12 panes on the lower floors and 6 panes above. The roof is piended and has corniced ashlar stacks and grey slate tiles. A flagpole is present.

To the rear of the main house is a large banking hall and quadrant wall constructed of stugged ashlar with a shallow lead dome. A corniced screen wall marks the front boundary, dated and signed 'PK 1858' on the north side. A rubble quadrant screen wall extends north, featuring a pilastered and corniced gate at the centre. South ranges feature a concave quadrant ashlar link with small pavilions and a pedimented window dated 1958, connecting to an early 19th century, two-storey, eight-bay range of droved ashlar. A modern office block is located to the rear.

The interior is exceptionally well-preserved. The ground floor vestibule and first-floor landing feature a double-height screen with coupled Corinthian columns above Ionic columns. A grand hall with fishscale coving leads to a staircase with a carved timber banister, bronze lamps, and a Rococo ceiling. The magnificent Banking Hall, 18 metres square, is dominated by a dome supported by arches springing from low corners, with five tiers of diminishing glazed stars and a central oculus. The pendentives contain figures representing Commerce, Agriculture, Navigation, and the Arts, sculpted by James Steell, with restrained plaster relief decoration. The hall was refurbished in 1972 with white Italian marble counters and further restored in 1989. Significant elements of Chambers' original design remain on the upper floors, notably the 1771 Drawing Room (now a boardroom), featuring a carved white marble fireplace, corniced overdoors with carved friezes, and a neo-classical ceiling by Richardson, with roundels in the centre and at the ends. Original fret pattern fireplaces are found on the second floor, as is the original head and oval skylight of the staircase hall, above a glazed landing skylight. An iron-framed, galleried library is located to the east, with a pitched roof and skylights.

Elaborate cast-iron spearhead railings, gates, and lamp standards, dating to 1827 and made by Anderson’s Leith Walk Foundry, are found throughout the site, with porch lamp standards constructed in 1828. Note that the Hopetoun Monument is listed separately.