39 Albany Street, Edinburgh

This is a substantial, early 19th-century classical terrace, likely designed by William Sibbald, forming the eastern terminal of Albany Street in Edinburgh. The terrace consists of two storeys, an attic, and a basement, originally six bays wide. The exterior is faced in polished ashlar sandstone with V-jointed rustication at the principal floor level, while the basement is rockfaced. A base course runs along the front, with decorative band courses between the basement and principal floor, and again between the principal and first floors. There’s a panelled frieze at the principal floor level of numbers 39 and 41, a cill course at the first floor, blind aprons in the first-floor bays of numbers 39 to 43, and a cornice and blocking course at the first floor level. Ashlar steps and oversailing entrance platts lead to the basement.

The principal (north) elevation features an advanced, six-bay terminal pavilion at the right-hand end, encompassing numbers 39 and 41. This section is distinguished by a pair of six-panel timber doors flanked by semi-engaged Doric columns supporting a lintel above, with radial semicircular fanlights centered at the principal floor level. The other bays on the principal elevation have windows set in round-arched recesses. Regular fenestration is present on the upper floors and in the basement. Decorative foliate pendant carvings are recessed into round-arched panels between the penultimate bays, and foliate swags topped with patera are positioned between the bays at the first floor. A central curvilinear fluted wallhead panel also adorns the elevation. Number 43 has a six-panel timber door with an umbrella-shaped rectangular fanlight, accompanied by a window on the first floor. The west (York Lane) elevation is of random rubble with a chamfered north-west corner. This side has pairs of windows at the center and right and a single window at the attic level. A random rubble wall, coped and returned at the rear, is on the right. The east elevation adjoins a neighboring terrace and is documented separately. The rear elevation was not inspected in 1998.

The windows are predominantly 12-pane timber sash and case. The roof is covered in grey slate, with a pair of polygonal box dormers at number 39 and a pair of slate-hung bow-fronted dormers at number 41. Cast-iron rainwater goods are present. The building has a rendered gablehead stack, along with a variety of corniced and coped broached ashlar ridge stacks, featuring circular cans. Coped skews are also visible. The interiors were not inspected in 1998. The front is bordered by ashlar copes surmounted by cast-iron railings with spear-headed and urn finials.