21-23 High Street, Montrose

17 and 19 High Street in Montrose is a three-storey and attic tenement building constructed in 1866, featuring Classical architectural details. The front is finished in sandstone ashlar, while the rear is squared and snecked. Notable elements include a cill cornice and band course at the first floor, a band course between the first and second floors, an eaves cornice, a parapet, and architraved margins.

The west elevation is symmetrical, with modern shopfronts on either side at ground level and a pend in the center. The first-floor windows have pilaster bases, while the second-floor windows feature corniced cills and squared corners at the heads. A prominent nepus gable is present, with a round-arched window at the center that has a pedimented armorial keystone. There is also a lozenge strapwork panel on the stack, and flanking canted piended dormers that are set back from the parapet.

The north elevation, which adjoins 13/15 High Street, includes a stone-mullioned bipartite window on the left at the first floor. The south elevation, adjoining 23/27 High Street, has a window on the left at the second floor. The east elevation is asymmetrical, featuring a bipartite window at both the first and second floors above the pend in the center. There is an advanced single bay stairtower on the left with windows on each floor, and a single-storey building that abuts at ground level and extends eastward. This elevation includes an advanced gable end to the right of the pend, with an off-set window to the left at the second floor. The ground floor window is blocked, and a modern external flue has been added. The entrance to the upper storeys is located in the south wall of the pend, framed by stugged ashlar margins.

The building features timber sash and case windows, with plate glass at the front and 12-pane windows at the rear. The stairtower includes frosted and stained glass at the first and second floors. The roof is covered in grey slate, with stone skews and a tall rendered gablehead stack to the east, topped with polygonal cans.

Inside, the ground floor has been converted for modern shop use, while the staircase features cast-iron banisters and splayed and battered timber reveals at the staircase windows. The upper floors were not seen in 1997.