40-44 Montgomery Street, Edinburgh

40-44 Montgomery Street is a classical, near-symmetrical, four-storey corner tenement block, possibly designed by John Chesser in the 1880s and built between 1896 and 1909. The building features a splayed corner and a distinctive Doric doorpiece with a balcony facing Brunswick Street. It is constructed of polished ashlar and squared coursed rubble with dressed margins at the rear. Architectural details include a base course, a cill course at the second floor, and a main cornice with dentils on the Brunswick Street and corner elevations, which separates the second and third floors. The eaves cornice and blocking course complete the structure. The fenestration is regular, with sunken panelled aprons on the ground floor windows along Brunswick Street and the corner elevation, and architraved windows on the Brunswick Street elevation and corner.

On the east elevation facing Brunswick Street, there are four bays (five bays at the ground floor). Dividing bands are present between the ground and first floors, along with a cill cornice at the first floor. The central bay on the ground floor features a timber-panelled door with a letterbox fanlight, framed by attached fluted Greek Doric columns that support an entablature. Above this, there is a wrought iron trellis pattern balcony with a Greek key border. Bipartite windows are present on the first, third, and fourth bays from the left on all floors.

The northeast corner elevation consists of a single bay, with dividing bands between the ground and first floors and a cill cornice at the first floor. Bipartite windows are also present here.

The north elevation facing Montgomery Street has five bays (six bays at the ground floor). On the ground floor, the fourth bay from the left contains a timber-panelled door with a letterbox fanlight. A cill course is located at the first floor, with bipartite windows on all floors in the outer right bay.

The glazing primarily consists of plate glass in timber sash and case windows. The roof is a platform style, covered with grey slate, and features stone skews and skewputts. On the east elevation, there are two ridge stacks to the left and one wallhead stack; on the north elevation, there is one wallhead stack and one mutual ridge stack to the right. The stacks are corniced in ashlar with circular cans.