Almondale, 4 Essex Road, Edinburgh

Almondale, located at 4 Essex Road in Edinburgh, is a small mansion built around 1935. It is a two-storey, seven-bay structure designed in the Scots late Stuart style, featuring a near symmetrical H-plan layout with advanced single bays on the outer left and right sides. The building is constructed from rake-jointed bull-faced yellow sandstone and includes relieving arches over the ground floor windows, a polished yellow sandstone doorpiece, and first-floor windows positioned just under the eaves, along with a deep cornice and swept overhanging eaves.

The northern entrance elevation has seven bays with pavilions on the outer left and right. At the center, there is an architraved doorpiece topped with a scrolled pediment and a timber panelled door. Flanking the entry are single windows on both sides, each with architraved surrounds and chamfered cills. Above the entry, there is a single window on the first floor. To the left of the entry, there are single windows on both floors, while the bay to the right features a stair window. The semi-circular bays, which have conical roofs at the internal angles of the returns, contain architraved single windows on both floors. The advanced pavilions on the outer left and right also have single windows on both floors.

The southern garden elevation is near symmetrical with six bays, featuring single windows on both floors in the central bays. The advanced single-storey arcaded loggias on the outer left and right are now glazed, and there are square stone balcony rails above. A doorway leading to the balcony is located in the bay on the outer left.

The eastern side elevation has the first arcade of the loggia blocked on the outer left, while the second arcade is glazed. Single windows are present in the remaining bays. The building predominantly features 12-pane timber sash and case windows and has a piended grey slate roof with tripartite box dormers on the southern side. Shouldered and corniced coursed sandstone ridgestacks are located on the eastern and western sides, although the cans are missing.

Inside, the mansion has plain cornices, an oak panelled drawing room, a Tudor-arched fireplace, and decorative plaster wall motifs. The property also includes gatepiers and boundary walls with ogival caps at the access point from the public road, along with a high coped boundary wall. There is a later flat-roofed rendered double garage to the east of the house.