59 Queen Street, Edinburgh

This is a circa 1795 classical corner tenement located on the intersection of Queen Street and Castle Street in Edinburgh. It is a three-storey building with a basement and attic, and has undergone alterations and additions in the 20th century. The building is constructed of droved cream ashlar sandstone with polished dressings.

The Castle Street elevation features a three-bay house to the right. The ground level has channelled rustication, a cill course at the first floor, and long and short quoins. A nine-panel door is set within a pilastered Venetian doorpiece, complete with a radiating fanlight framed by pilasters and a cornice, all painted. A common stair bay is slightly set back to the left and features a door with a cornice, architrave, and a plate glass rectangular fanlight. A single mutuled cornice and roof unify all four bays. An earlier 19th-century, piend-roofed tripartite dormer is visible to the right.

To the north, a lower, plainer five-bay block has a gable over the three bays to the left. The building has undergone considerable stone repairs, including cement patching, and retains long and short quoins at the corner. A later corniced doorway provides access to a shop in the inner right bay, with a shop window beside it; blind windows are a feature of the centre bay of the gable. A pair of windows punctuate the gablehead, and a piend-roofed tripartite dormer is located to the right. A single-storey porch is canted across the corner. It features a simplified tripartite doorway with a round-headed plate glass fanlight, framing pilasters and a cornice that returns along the sides and terminates in a solid parapet. Low screen walls enclose the platt with terminal piers.

The Queen Street elevation presents three storeys and a basement and attic. It incorporates a band course above the ground floor and a cill course at the first floor. Long and short quoins are present at the corner. An original tripartite, pilastered doorway, complete with a round-headed metal fanlight, framing pilasters and a cornice, is on the left, now partly blocked and glazed as a window. An eaves cornice is present. Two late 19th-century piend-roofed canted dormers are visible. An arched window is located at basement level.

The windows are timber sash and case, with plate glass panes in four, twelve, or single divisions. Stone stacks, rendered to gable and rebuilt at Queen Street, are present, along with ashlar coped skews and grey slates.

The interior was formerly occupied by a bank on the ground floor, and is now a restaurant. A single flat was originally on the first floor, with a double upper floor above – the upper floors are now offices. The interior features panelled dados, some original carved chimneypieces, various slappings, and an upper stair with turned and blocked timber banisters.