3, Kingsmead Street

This is an early 18th-century end-terrace house on the south side of Kingsmead Street, with 20th-century additions. It may have been designed by John Strahan, as the area, including Kingsmead Street and Square, was laid out in 1727. The building is constructed of limestone ashlar with a slate roof. It is a tall, deep house with an entrance to the left and a narrow wing to the right, the latter being all that remains of an extensive terrace destroyed by bombing in 1942.

The house has three storeys and an attic, with four windows on the front facade. These are twelve-pane sash windows set within moulded architraves and sills. A moulded cornice runs along the first and second floor levels, and the attic storey has only two windows and a simple parapet. The ground floor features a shopfront with a recessed door containing margin panes, and to the left, a 20th-century panelled door under a transom light, both under a small cornice. Plain pilasters flank the front, projecting forward at the cornice level; to the right are remnants of a channelled pilaster, belonging to an adjacent property that was destroyed. A shared stack exists to the left, connecting to No. 2 Kingsmead Street. The rear of the building is rendered, while the narrow, two-bay, full-height wing is constructed of squared rubble and contains twelve-pane sash windows with slender bars. A wide-span ridge roof slopes down to plain eaves, and further sashes are present, including a deep stair window.

A former list mentioned an open string staircase with turned balusters and a ramped handrail, fielded panelling and shutters in the upper rooms, architrave doorcases, and moulded cornices; the interior has not been inspected recently. The loss of this street is regrettable, but the survival of this house suggests that the overall quality of presentation in the original streetscape was high. The property abuts the rear of Rosewell House.