17 Shandon Crescent, Edinburgh

The building comprises a group of 18 houses dating from 1880 to 1883, forming a half-crescent on Shandon Crescent, with further blocks fronting Shandon Road and Shandon Street. The design is unified, with 16 identical two-bay houses arranged along the crescent, each with a canted window to the right and a front door to the left, set within small front gardens. A taller, pavilion-shaped block closes the southern end of the crescent, turning the corner onto Shandon Street, and is balanced by a matching block to the southeast, with two three-bay houses positioned between them.

The houses are constructed of coursed, warm-coloured sandstone with long and short cream ashlar dressings. A base course runs along the ground, and a cill course is present at first floor level. Each house features a four-panelled front door with a brass Edinburgh handle and a plate glass rectangular fanlight above. The northwest elevation, facing Shandon Crescent, presents a door to the left of each house, with a single window above. To the right is a corniced canted window, set on an ashlar base with a blocking course and decorative cast-iron brattishing above; a bipartite window sits above the canted window. A downpipe is located to the left of the canted window. Number 2 marks the beginning of the crescent and abuts the garden wall of an adjoining property.

Number 18, and number 1 Shandon Road, are symmetrical three-bay pavilion blocks, featuring a cornice and parapet, with regular window placement. A panelled two-leaf door is centrally positioned, set within stopped roll-moulded margins, flanked by bipartite windows. The southwest elevation, facing Shandon Road, presents a pair of three-bay houses flanked by the earlier-mentioned pavilion blocks. The pavilion on the left (number 1) has a blank bay on the left with a wallhead stack, central windows to each floor, and a door and first-floor window to the right. The pavilion on the right (number 29 Shandon Street) is two bays wide, with windows to each floor, the left bay being bipartite. A wallhead stack sits between them. The houses situated between the pavilions have higher wallheads and shallower roof pitches than the main crescent. Central bays of the houses have a door similar to the pavilions, above which sits a single window, while the outer bays are bipartite and the inner bays are single.

The southeast (Shandon Street) elevation mirrors number 18 Shandon Crescent, presenting a symmetrical three-bay pavilion block with matching detailing. The rear elevation, facing Shandon Crescent, shows each house with two bays and a projecting scullery to the left.

Most of the original four-pane glazing pattern remains in the timber sash and case windows, although plate glass has been used in the side lights of the canted windows. Several windows have been replaced with uPVC, notably at numbers 11, 13, 15, and 18 Shandon Crescent. Windows with replaced doors include numbers 9 and 14, while numbers 2, 9, 11, 14, 15, and 17 have replacement handles. A rooflight illuminates the rear stairwell. The roof is covered with grey slates, with ashlar coped mutual skews and corniced stacks topped with full complements of octagonal cans. Moulded eaves gutters run around the buildings. The roof is piended at number 2 Shandon Crescent and on the pavilion blocks. Low squared rubble garden walls feature ashlar saddleback coping. Railings delineate Shandon Road and Street. The crescent steps slightly after numbers 7, 11, and 15.