55 Abbeyhill Edinburgh, Scotland
Listed Building Data
55 Abbeyhill has been designated a scheduled monument in Scotland with the following information. Please note that not all available data may be shown here, minor errors and/or formatting may have occurred during transcription, and some information may have become outdated since listing.
- Historic Scotland ID
- 400026 (entity ID)
- Building ID
- 51170
- Category
- B
- Name
- 55 Abbeyhill
- Parish
- Edinburgh
- County
- Edinburgh, City Of
- Easting
- 326813
- Northing
- 674111
- Date Listed
- 26 September 2008
Listed Building Description
Text courtesy of Historic England. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.
Robert Morham, 1896. Single storey, 6-bay, irregular-plan castellated Romanesque former Police Station with distinctive advanced finialled, conical-roofed fishscale slated corner turrets and deep corbelled and battlemented parapet. Snecked, rock-faced red sandstone. Deep chamfered base course, band course. Animal figure gargoyles. Central round-arched chamfered doorway with recessed 2-leaf studded timber entrance door with semi-circular fanlight above. Round-arched window openings with roll-moulded architraves, some with stone column mullions. Gabled, louvred, timber lucarnes to turrets. Later metal grids obscure windows. Grey slates. Red ridge tiles with ball finial details. Cast iron rainwater goods with decorative hoppers.
Listed Building Statement of Special Interest
Text courtesy of Historic Environment Scotland. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.
This is a richly detailed building in an unusual castellated Romanesque style which makes a significant contribution to the streetscape of this architecturally diverse area of Edinburgh. Little altered externally, the red sandstone distinguishes the building from others in the vicinity. The quality of the stonework is particularly fine with its battlemented parapet and gargoyles. The fishscale slating to the corner turrets is a further mark of the attention to detail with characterises this building. A small single-storey flat-roofed block to the rear of the building (West) may be the old police cells. At the end of the 19th century, this area of Abbeyhill was dominated by heavy industry with a chemical works and two breweries situated close to this former Police Station, and with the railway line running close to the rear of the station. While the railway remains the heavy industry has gone. Robert Morham (1839-1912) was an Edinburgh-based architect who became the City Superintendent of Works in 1873. Currently disused (2007).
Listed Building References
Text courtesy of Historic Environment Scotland. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.
Ordnance Survey Map, 1905-6. John Gifford, Colin McWilliam and David Walker, The Buildings of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1984. p218. Dictionary of Scottish Architects, www.codexgeo.co.uk (accessed 17-01-08). Other information courtesy of local resident.
