No 28 Charlotte Square

No 28 Charlotte Square is a National Trust for Scotland-owned Georgian townhouse in Edinburgh's New Town, one of the finest surviving examples of Robert Adam's celebrated late-eighteenth-century architectural scheme for Charlotte Square, and a property whose public role has, over time, differed somewhat from that of its neighbouring and more consistently visited counterpart, No.

7 Charlotte Square, known as The Georgian House, which the Trust presents as a fully reconstructed period-house museum illustrating Edinburgh New Town domestic life around 1800. No 28 has instead served for many years primarily as the National Trust for Scotland's own Edinburgh head office and function space, while also historically opening a number of its principal ground-floor and first-floor rooms to the public, presented with a particular emphasis on decorative arts, fine furniture, silver and paintings drawn from the Trust's wider collections, offering visitors an opportunity to see notable examples of Georgian and later decorative craftsmanship displayed within an authentic, beautifully preserved Adam-designed interior rather than a room-by-room domestic reconstruction of the kind found at No.

7. Because the building continues to combine an active working office role with this more limited, selectively opened showcase function, and because National Trust for Scotland use of the property has varied over time between decorative arts display, event and function hire, and periods of more restricted access, visitors should treat No 28's public opening as considerably less predictable and continuous than that of the neighbouring Georgian House, and should confirm the currently correct presentation format and opening arrangement directly with the National Trust for Scotland before planning a visit specifically to see the interior, rather than assuming standard museum-style daily opening applies.

The building's architectural significance is nonetheless considerable in its own right, forming part of Robert Adam's unified, palace-fronted scheme for Charlotte Square, widely regarded as one of the finest examples of late Georgian urban planning and architecture in Britain, and the surviving decorative plasterwork, fireplaces and room proportions within No 28 offer visitors with the opportunity to see them a genuinely high-quality example of Adam-influenced interior design, whatever the specific current programme of access happens to be.

Visitors whose primary interest is a guaranteed, regularly open museum experience of Edinburgh New Town domestic life are generally better served by visiting the neighbouring Georgian House at No.

7, while those specifically interested in Adam's architecture and decorative arts displays, and prepared to confirm current access arrangements in advance, may find a visit to No 28 rewarding when opening coincides with their visit.