1-6 Barclay Terrace, Edinburgh

1-6 Barclay Terrace is a tenement block constructed in 1890 by Thomas Purves Marwick, designed in a Free Renaissance style. It is a symmetrical, U-shaped building of four storeys and an attic, with shops on the ground floor. The building has six bays facing South, and two bays each on the East and West sides, with polygonal corner towers. It is built of pale sandstone ashlar.

A moulded band separates the ground and first floors, and a moulded cill course is present at the first and third floors. Continuous hoodmoulds are above the windows at attic level. Six tall chimney stacks are a prominent feature, incorporating niches at the first-floor level, a linking band corresponding to the third-floor cill course, and elaborate foliate relief panels at the top. The year 1890 is inscribed on a panel to the South-East, and the initials “AC” (representing Alexander Calder, the builder/developer) are on the South-West panel.

On the South elevation, the shops and stair doors at ground floor are separated by colonnettes with foliate capitals on tall pedestals. The outer left and right bays have bipartite windows on the first, second, third, and fourth floors, with crow-stepped dormerheads breaking the eaves. Two centre bays feature three-storey canted bays supported on consoles at the first floor, topped by balconies with foliate relief panels to the bipartite windows on the fourth floor, and a small paired window in an elaborately crowstepped gable above. Flanking bays have single windows with scrolled gableheads breaking the eaves at the fourth floor.

The corner towers and East and West elevations feature diagonally set shop doors flanked by colonnettes. Channelled masonry and foliate sculpted panels are between the shop windows. The towers’ first, second, third, and fourth floors have windows on three sides, with foliate sculpted panels above. Corners are articulated by slim colonnettes with annulets. The East and West elevations have a narrow bay facing South with small windows, the fourth-floor window being bipartite and breaking the eaves with a scrolled dormerhead, and a wider bay facing North with larger windows, the fourth-floor window breaking the eaves with a scrolled broken pedimented dormerhead. A modern dormer has been added above.

The windows contain two-pane upper sashes and plate glass lower sashes, with plate glass in timber sash and case windows. The roof is covered with greenish-grey slates, incorporating a mansard roof. The corner towers have two-stage slated roofs, with a swept polygonal lower stage and a domed cap. Decorative cast-iron down pipes with decorative hoppers are also present.