138 Whitehouse Loan, Edinburgh

Clinton House is a two-story villa dated 1873, located at 140-142 Whitehouse Loan, Edinburgh. It has been subdivided into separate dwellings. The house is constructed from squared and snecked sandstone with lightly stugged dressings. A base course, dividing band course, overhanging eaves, and bargeboarded gables with timber finials are prominent features, alongside chamfered window reveals.

The east, or entrance, elevation is gabled and three-bayed. A roll-moulded doorway leads to an open porch in the advanced bay to the outer right. An inscription, “Lord thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations,” appears above the inner door, while a hoodmoulding is positioned above a blank tablet above the outer door. A single window is at the first floor level above the outer doorway, accentuated by decorative pierced bargeboards and an iron weathervane finial. Two single windows are located at ground level in the second bay from the left, with a bipartite window above. A single window is in the bay to the outer left.

The south, or garden, elevation, is also three-bayed and features a two-story conservatory to the outer left. A two-story canted window occupies the bay to the outer right, corbelled and featuring a timber gablet above the central light. The roof is a swept, faceted pyramid with an iron finial. A two-story canted window is corbelled to a square at the gablehead of the first bay. In the central bay, a single window is positioned below a corbelled balcony with a pierced stone balustrade. A timber gablet also decorates this section. The two-story, five-bayed conservatory is timber-framed and glazed, with a canted five-light porch at ground level to the south and a canted bay on its return.

The north elevation features four bays, including a large gabled service wing to the outer right. A tripartite light with leaded panes is visible in the outer left position. In the second bay, a window is at ground level and paired with a window above. A mulioned and transomed tripartite window is at ground level in the gabled third bay, with a window above. Two windows are at ground level in the fourth bay, paired with a bipartite window above. A gabled timber porch provides access to a secondary entrance within the service wing. The building has plate glass sash and case windows.

The roof is covered with Cumberland slate, with some sections re-roofed with Scotch slate. Two ridge stacks have octagonal flues, and corniced stacks are located to the west and within the service wing. Original rainwater goods, including hoppers and decorative brackets to downpipes, remain.

The interior includes a panelled hall, a broad dog-leg staircase with timber barley-sugar balusters, marble chimneypieces, and boldly detailed plaster cornices. The library was recast around 1900, featuring fitted corner seats and plaster decoration to walls and cornice, reminiscent of the style of Robert Lorimer.

A single-story, T-plan lodge, located at 136 Whitehouse Loan, mirrors the detailing of the main house. Its south elevation presents a three-bayed façade with an open gabled timber porch to the outer right and a canted bay with windows to each face, the central one gabled and featuring timber brackets to the eaves and a blank panel. Windows are situated in the bay to the left, and on the east and west elevations. Corniced ridge stacks are present.

Corniced and capped ashlar gatepiers with ball finials mark the entrance to Whitehouse Loan, where the gateway has been widened to accommodate the road. A quadrant wall provides pedestrian access, and high coped boundary and mutual walls enclose the property.