55 Baker Street

Built in 1890, this was John Allan’s first foray in building in brick, to great effect.

This charming Old English Tudor style corner tenement used to have a pub on the ground floor, The Stirling Arms, whose name appears in a plaque above the door alongside a Stirling Wolf. John Allan would have another carved wolf installed on the façade of the Wolf Craig, also constructed in brick, seven years later in 1897.

This Category B Listed building is a real gem, and has tangible impact on the surrounding, more traditional, Scottish streetscape. When it was constructed the neighbouring Baker Street Gardens had not yet been created and the buildings which surrounded it were traditional three-storey vernacular tenements, tightly packed-in together, making the use of bright red brick all the more surprising.