St Andrews Chambers With Basement Railings

This building comprises assurance society offices, now a bank, with associated basement railings, constructed in 1869 by George Corson. The exterior is sandstone ashlar with granite columns, and a roof that is not visible. Elaborate cast-iron railings are also present. The building is three storeys high with a basement, and consists of five bays. It is built in the Italianate style. The ground floor is rusticated, featuring a projecting porch on the left with paired pink Peterhead granite Corinthian columns, with Rubislaw granite collars supporting an entablature. This entablature has a balustraded balcony to the first-floor window, and a dentilled cornice extending over the ground floor. The ornate door surround includes a circular fanlight in a deep recess and a carved name plaque. The window frames have been replaced. Tall windows are present on the ground floor, diminishing in size on the first and second floors, each with architraves, heavy segmental pediments containing carved tympanums on consoles, and carved aprons to the first-floor windows. A guilloche frieze with projecting lions' heads, a heavy modillion eaves cornice, and a balustraded parapet with urns complete the exterior. The interior of the building was not inspected. The basement railings have an elaborate and robust design, finished with ball finials. Originally the premises of the Scottish Widows Fund and Life Assurance Society, in 1881 the occupants included Herman Edward Passavant, a merchant and Consular Agent for France, and William H Thorp, an architect.