Thread by @cocteautriplets

Today's ESPC house of historical interest is a flat in this curious, mock Tudorbethan house at 1 Belford Road above the Dean Village.

The insides are almost entirely modern and not much to write home about, but the views are pretty.

Now split up into 3 flats/offices, it's quite a remarkable (and more than a little bonkers) structure.

And just what is that impressed motif in the stucco with a caligraphy H, and thistles and dragons?

The building was built in 1891, the architect was Sir George Washington Browne (1853-1939, who would go on to do Edinburgh's Caledonian Hotel.)

The house was built for Charles Martin Hardie, RSA, a fashionable and successful artist known for paintings of Scottish life and also portraits of Robert Burns and Walter Scott. Hardie (1858-1916) was a native of East Lothian

The "H" in the render is Hardie's initial. The thistle is for Scotland and the eagle (which I think called a dragon!) is for his first wife, Mary Lewis, an American. He divorced her in 1895 after she "ran off with an actor".

The house, Lynedoch House, when it was built, also had stables in the basement levels on Bell's Brae for the business of "Cabbie Stewart", the local personality who built the rambling fantasy pile of Kirkbrae House (CC © kim traynor via Geograph)

It was built on the site of the Drumsheugh Toll cottage, next to the original Dean Free Church. It looks to me like that bay window in the old cottage was re-used in the later house. The toll became surplus to requirements when the Queensferry Rd. was redirected along Dean Bridge

(last pic by Thomas Begbie, 1887 from the Cavaye collection of the Edinburgh City Libraries) capitalcollections.org.uk/view-item?key=…

This 1902 picture (Edinburgh Photographic Society collection of Edinburgh City Libraries) shows Lynedoch House, and that it was originally covered head-to-toe in render, not just the lower course. On the other side of the Free Church is the Drumsheugh baths.

Those 3 buildings in a row give a particularly un-Edinburgh scene. The tower of the house nicely mirrors that of the Norman-style church. By this time, Hardie no longer seems to be living there as his address is listed in the post office directory as Shandwick Place.

By this time, Dean Free Church had a new and more splendid redstone church at the other end of the road. I'm not sure how long the old building stayed in religious use, but it was for many years used by a joiner I think, before being demolished and is still a gap site.

A 2008-2020 Streetview comparison shows the passage of time, vegetation and weather on the steep slope have not been kind to the abandoned plot.

Of Lynedoch House, the ground floors are now offices and the west parts of the first floor are occupied by the Edinburgh Society of Musicians who have a recital room, bar, lounge and artists' rooms there edinburghsocietyofmusicians.co.uk

It was listed in 1970, Category B britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/200370826-drum…

And if you look closely above the front door (now no. 2 Belford Road)

Might be useful to include the property listing here if you want a nosy around inside. As I say though, don't expect many original features; espc.com/property/1-bel…