416, 418, 420 Morningside Road, Morningside, Edinburgh

This is a substantial block of tenements on Morningside Road, Edinburgh, built in 1887 by George Wilson. It comprises four storeys and an attic, with seven bays, and a prominent round angle tower. Shops are located at ground floor level, with a basement extending to the rear.

The front elevation is constructed from red sandstone ashlar, while the rear is of squared and snecked yellow sandstone rubble with red dressings. A moulded string course runs above the first floor, a cill course is present below the second-floor windows, and a lintel course defines the third floor. An eaves cornice tops the building. The windows are architraved, with Gibbsian surrounds to the first-floor windows, excluding the canted bays. A tall, fluted frieze with a blank panel and cornice sits above the second-floor windows. The third-floor windows are pedimented, and the fourth-floor attic windows are set within a mansard roof, also pedimented. Fluted pilasters decorate the shopfronts, incorporating floral carvings, an egg and dart cornice, a continuous fascia and cornice, and a parapet of fireclay balusters. Three original shopfronts remain (Nos 404, 412, and 420), featuring recessed entrance doors and slender timber mullions. Panelled doors lead to the common stairwells, which are lit by square, border-glazed fanlights.

The east (Morningside Road) elevation is divided into two sections. Nos 404 to 414 are a four-bay tenement, with a single window to the bay to the left of centre. The bay to the right of centre incorporates a three-storey canted window with a corresponding canted dormer at the fourth floor. Another bay to the outer left also features a three-storey canted window and fourth-floor dormer. A single window punctuates the outer right bay. Nos 416 to 420 form a three-bay corner tenement, with a four-storey round angle tower to the left which breaks the eaves at the fourth stage and is finished with a finialled ogival roof, containing three windows on each floor. The centre bay has smaller windows on each floor, and the right bay has a single window. Modern replacement shopfronts are found at Nos 406, 410, and 414. No. 416 has a 1930s tiled butcher’s shop, while No. 420 retains coloured leaded panes at the tops of the shop windows and original fitted shelving. The south elevation is three bays wide, with a single window in the centre bay; the outer bays have wallhead stacks corbelled at the second floor. The rear (west) elevation has regular fenestration with single windows per bay and floor, a wallhead stack centrally located on Nos 404-414, and a round stair tower for Nos 416 to 420, topped with a conical roof. The north elevation has a central wallhead stack.

The windows are timber sash and case, predominantly with two-pane upper sashes and plate glass lower sashes. Some plate glass glazing and some four-pane windows feature at the rear, with replacement windows on the third floor. The roof is covered in green slate, and features four wallhead stacks and mutual stacks. Moulded eaves gutters are in place. The interior of the building was not inspected in 1992.