37 West Street, Penicuik

This is a mid-19th century house with later additions, situated in Penicuik. The main part of the house is a symmetrical, 3-bay, 2-storey and attic rectangular block facing West Street, with a 2-storey single bay wing projecting to the west and an L-shaped wing to the rear, incorporated into a courtyard. The exterior is constructed of tooled and snecked sandstone with polished dressings, featuring a base course, eaves course, and long and short quoins.

The principal, or southeast, elevation has an architraved doorpiece with a shallow block pediment centred at ground level, containing a modern 4-panel timber door and a plate glass rectangular fanlight. Regular sash windows with four panes are found in the remaining bays at ground and first floor levels. The wing to the left has a doorway at ground level and a dormer breaking the eaves centred above.

The southwest elevation features a 3-light canted lean-to window with a fish-scale slated roof projecting from the gabled return of the West Street block. A modern timber door with a plate glass rectangular fanlight is located to the left of the principal elevation’s western gable, with a window above it. The rear wing comprises a 3-bay block with an advanced single-bay wing to the left. A tripartite rectangular window with a piended slate roof is centered at ground level, alongside a modern timber door with a plate glass rectangular fanlight. There is also a single-storey columned doorpiece with a fish-scale slated roof, incorporating a 6-panel timber door and a plate glass segmental-arched fanlight. The first floor has three regularly-spaced windows, and a canted bay extends through ground and first floors, featuring 3-light canted windows.

The northwest elevation adjoins a terraced neighbour, while the northeast elevation’s gable is obscured by the neighbouring terrace.

The interior has not been inspected. The roofs are graded grey slate with lead ridges, and the windows are predominantly timber sash and case with four panes. There are three evenly-arranged rectangular piended dormers on both the southeast and southwest elevations. Cast-iron rainwater goods are present, along with ashlar gablehead and ridge stacks topped with cornices, coped details, and octagonal cans. The coped skews have gabletted skewputts.

Rubble boundary walls with semicircular coping stones enclose the property. Ashlar gatepiers feature recessed round-arched panels surmounted by shallow pyramidal caps, and support two-leaf vertically-boarded timber gates.