Leith Sailor's Home, 1, 2, 3, 4 Tower Place, Leith, Edinburgh

Charles Stuart Still Johnston, 1882-5, signed and dated, converted to hotel, 1992-4. Large, 4-storey and attic asymmetrical L-shaped Baronial corner block with engaged square 5-stage clock tower, shops at ground floor, single storey hall to rear. Cream sandstone, squared and snecked stugged rubble with polished dressings. Ashlar shopfronts with plain frieze and continuous cornice to NW and SW elevations; balustraded parapet at 1st floor to NW elevation; 1st floor windows transomed; corbel course above 2nd floor; 3rd floor breaking eaves in gabled dormerheads; attic windows with Germanic-style gabled dormers; crowstepped gables; chamfered reveals; ashlar mullions; corbelled corner turrets.

NW (FRONT) ELEVATION: 8-bay; 3-bay tower to centre with round-arched corniced doorway at centre flanked by transomed windows, angel-head keystone, scrolled brackets and datestone (1883) above door, carved spandrels with rope mouldings; 1st floor with bipartite window to centre flanked by single windows, all architraved; 2nd floor as above; single windows to 3rd floor with corbel course stepping over; 5th stage of tower with 2 pedimented windows and with clockface to each side; corbelled crenellated parapet with canon spouts, angle bartizans with trefoil gunloops, SE bartizan crowned by caphouse to stair with ogival finialled roof; flagpole. 1st floor of 2 left bays with tripartite and bipartite window, heraldic panel above; 2nd floor with single and bipartite window; single windows to 3rd floor; rectangular corner bartizan with single window and finialled pyramidal roof to left.

3 right bays with 2 bipartite, 1 single window at 1st floor; 2 single, 1 bipartite window at 2nd floor; single windows at 3rd floor; corner turret with finialled conical roof to right.

SW (TOWER STREET) ELEVATION: 8-bay; 3 advanced gabled bays with apex stack and corner turrets at 3rd floor to outer left; single windows to all floors; heraldic panels at 1st floor and above 2nd floor. 5 bays to right with 2 bipartite, 3 single windows at 1st floor; single windows at 2nd floor; 3rd floor with alternating bipartite and single windows. 2-bay later brick addition to outer right.

NE (REAR) ELEVATION: single storey rectangular-plan gambrel-roofed hall with skylights and fine pagoda-style 2-tier ventilator with swept eaves to ridge at Tower Street Lane. Gabled end elevation of Tower Place range with single windows, angle bartizan detailed as above and apex stack; carved monogram plaque at 1st floor to left. Rear elevation of main ranges with irregularly-spaced single and bipartite windows; nepus gable to NW range; rectangular projection to outer left of SW range.

Modern sash and case replacement windows with plate glass glazing. Slate roof with metal flashings and red terracotta finials; 4 apex stacks (see above), wallhead stack to rear of SW elevation.

INTERIOR: not seen 1993.