6 Newmills Road, Dalkeith

6 Newmills Road, Dalkeith

A 3-storey corner building designed by J W Maclean and dated 1887, executed in Flemish style. The building presents 7 asymmetric bays to both Newmills Road and Lothian Street, with a broad taller chamfered corner tower bay as its dominant feature.

The main walls are constructed of squared and snecked bull-faced masonry, while the corner tower employs ashlar with red freestone nook-shafts. Ashlar dressings are used throughout. A band course runs between the ground and first floors on the north elevation. Stepped moulded string courses occur at cill level on the first floor and between the first and second floors. An eaves course with moulded eaves gutter crowns the elevation. Some original shouldered openings remain at ground level, with chamfered reveals and stop-chamfered details above the cill. Gabled dormerheads feature hoodmoulded panels, kneelers and ball finials.

The corner tower (northwest elevation) has been significantly altered at ground level, where a modern depressed-arched opening has replaced an original moulded and columned opening, now containing a recessed modern glazed tripartite door. Above this, recessed moulded round-arched panels at first and second floor levels contain a 2-storey canted window with leaded half-piend roof and flanking colonnettes. Outer nook-shafts rise to the eaves cornice. String courses appear at eaves level on the side elevations and at cill level on the second floor. An inscribed date "1887" is stepped over between the first and second floors. A notable moulded round-arched panel breaks the eaves, containing a clock supported on corbelled clusters of squat colonnettes that break through both the eaves course and cornice. The north and west sides of the tower are slate-hung below the eaves cornice.

The north (Newmills Road) elevation displays asymmetrical ground floor fenestration comprising 3-bay original shop front with central recessed door, an original 2-bay shop front with recessed door to the left, flanked by fanlit tenement doors. A modern facade with 3 display windows extends to the right around the corner. A Dutch gable spans 3 centre bays, featuring an apex pediment and hoodmoulded oculus, with a recessed round-arched panel over the second floor window below. Dormerheads appear in the penultimate left and outer bays. Canted oriel windows with cornice and fluted blocking course are positioned at first floor in the outer bays, breaking the shop fascia to the right. Bipartite windows occupy the second floor in the outer bays and within a bracketed ashlar panel in the penultimate bay to the left. A first floor window is set out-of-line in the bay to the right of centre, and a small second floor window sits between the outer and penultimate left bays.

The west (Lothian Street) elevation is similarly asymmetrical at ground floor, with a modern 3-bay facade containing 2 display windows to the left of centre, an original door and display window in the bay to the right of centre, and a later 3-bay shop front with recessed door in the penultimate bay to the right. Two original doors occupy the outer right bay, with the rightmost being taller. A Dutch gable matching that on the north elevation spans 3 centre bays. Dormerheads appear in the outer right and penultimate left and right bays. A canted oriel window at first floor occupies the outer right bay. Bipartite windows are regularly disposed at second floor in the outer right bay and within bracketed panels in the penultimate left and right bays, with windows at first and second floor between the penultimate and outer right bays.

The south elevation is blank above the adjoining 2-storey former service wing at No. 4 Lothian Street.

Sash and case windows of various sizes throughout display 2 and 4-pane glazing patterns. Coped skews are present, with stacks positioned gablehead to the east and several at the ridge and shouldered wallhead to the left of the tower on the north. The tower features a pyramidal roof crowned by a weathervane, with a bracketed upper stage and thistle-finalled louvred gabled lucarnes on each face. The roof is covered in grey-green slates, with some original cans retained. Original rainwater goods pierce the string courses.