Library Lodge, Daniel Stewart's And Melville College, Queensferry Road, Edinburgh

Library Lodge, Daniel Stewart's And Melville College, Queensferry Road, Edinburgh

David Rhind designed this extensive Neo-Jacobethan college building between 1849 and 1855. It stands in private grounds and is accompanied by a separate Art Hall designed by George Washington Browne from 1908 to 1909 on the west side, a gate lodge to the north at Queensferry Road, and college grounds surrounded by a coped boundary wall.

The main college building is a roughly 16-bay, 2-storey structure with an attic storey, laid out in an I-plan with a front courtyard now enclosed. It features prominent turreted towers and is constructed in sandstone ashlar with a banded base course and corniced balustraded eaves course. A single storey screen is advanced at ground floor, with the former main entrance at the centre marked by a large shaped gable. This entrance is flanked by canted bays with ogee-capped octagonal bartizans to the sides and further curvilinear gables. A moulded band course runs at first floor to the flanking and recessed bays, with a corniced eaves course and parapet above.

Four-stage towers occupy the corners of the flanking bays, each featuring a crenellated third stage and an octagonal fourth stage with an ogee dome. Large three-stage stair towers project to the left and right, with shaped parapets at the second stage, corbelled corner bartizans, arcaded third stages with louvres, and ogee roofs. A prominent shaped gable marks the first floor, flanked by tall ogee-capped towers. The windows are moulded with architraves, some hoodmoulded, and feature transoms and mullions throughout.

The west (entrance) elevation displays two storeys across roughly seven bays with a prominent tower at the centre and rectangular four-stage towers to the outer bays. The main entrance is set within this central tower with a hoodmoulded transomed fanlight above. The east elevation follows a similar design. The south elevation features advanced end and central bays with shaped gables flanked by four-stage crenellated towers at the outer bays. A broad advanced central bay is crowned with a shaped gable and corbelled bartizans, with a large transomed and mullioned arcaded window at first floor, hoodmoulded and topped by a decorative roundel.

The windows are predominantly plate glass in timber sash and case frames. Flat roofs feature corniced ashlar wallhead stacks integrated with the parapet; some modern clay cans have been added. Cast-iron rainwater goods serve the building.

The interior comprises an entrance hall, stair towers and classrooms that are predominantly plain, though some feature timber panelling and coffered ceilings. A hall occupying the ground and lower ground floors was formed from the original courtyard by Simpson and Brown Architects in 2007, positioned behind the screen and porter's lodge. The library, located at first floor to the rear and originally serving as a chapel, features a seven-bay roof with angel hammerbeams coloured in red and black by Sir Basil Spence between 1946 and 1948. A timber gallery front by Rhind is painted with shields and includes further timber panelling. The space contains armorial stained glass by Chilton and Kemp and Gothic marble tablets flanking the south window. A War Memorial forms the entrance to the library from the first floor corridor, with Gothic panelling designed by C.E. Tweedie and Sons and stained glass by Chilton and Kemp.

The Art Room, built as a single storey three-bay rectangular structure on the former library site, was designed by George Washington Browne from 1908 to 1909. It features prominent two-stage towers to the corners and canted bays flanking the entrance. Constructed in sandstone ashlar with a corniced eaves course and shaped parapet above (plain to the canted bays), it displays prominent curvilinear shaped gables to the east and west. Octagonal plan towers stand at each corner with blind fenestration at the second stage, corniced eaves courses and ogee caps. The main entrance is set between advanced canted bays with a transomed shouldered arched fanlight above. Paired bipartite windows appear in shouldered arched surrounds. The interior comprises a plain hall beyond a small porch.

The north gate lodge is a single storey structure flanked by main entrance gates, constructed in sandstone ashlar with a corniced eaves course stepped above windows and a plain parapet. Octagonal ogee-capped two-stage corner towers flank prominent shaped gables to the north and south.

The boundary walls are built in sandstone ashlar with moulded and shaped copes, with octagonal-capped gate piers marking the perimeter.