15, 17 Castle Street, Edinburgh

15 and 17 Castle Street in Edinburgh are former classical houses built between 1792 and 1794, which have undergone subsequent additions and alterations. Originally a symmetrical three-storey and attic pair with seven bays, they now feature shops on the ground floor.

The Castle Street elevation is made of droved cream sandstone ashlar with polished dressings. Corinthian giant order pilasters flank the central bay and outer bays, although these are partially obscured by later changes. The shops project at ground level, and there are further additions at the first floor. A common stair door is located at the center, topped by a rectangular fanlight with radiating glazing. Number 15 has a modern polished granite-faced shopfront that also provides access to the basement. It features a shallow canted window from the late 19th century at the first floor and a surviving panelled band course with rosettes above. Number 17 has a later 19th-century pilastered shopfront that includes a lugged and corniced door leading to the first floor, along with a cornice and brattishing. The first floor is rendered with architraves and a cornice, and there are added timber architraves at the second floor. The building has a plain frieze and eaves cornice, with a single piend-roofed dormer on the right and a similar dormer along with another shallow canted dormer on the left.

The Rose Street elevation features a rubble gable displaced to the left of the stack, rendered at the ground and first floors with plate glass shop windows and a cornice at ground level.

The windows are timber sash and case, mostly with plate glass, including a 12-pane window in the stair and multi-pane upper casements in the canted window at Number 15. The building has ashlar coped skews, rendered stacks on the center and left, and a rebuilt stone mutual stack on the right, all covered with grey slates.

Inside, the former houses have been thoroughly adapted, but the curving cantilevered central stair at Number 17 remains, featuring decorative alternate cast-iron banisters.