9, 10 Drumsheugh Gardens, Edinburgh

1 Drumsheugh Gardens is a townhouse terrace built between 1874 and 1882 by John Lessels. It forms a unified Renaissance-style front designed without columns, comprising four storeys and two bays, with main-door and common stair flats behind. A basement area extends under the street, incorporating vaulted cellars and retaining walls. The corner block to the west has five bays facing Walker Street. A later single-storey addition has been made at the rear of numbers 6 to 9.

The building is constructed from sandstone ashlar, with the ground floor channelled. The entrance platts overhang the basement. Features include a banded base course, moulded cill courses at the first and second floors, a cornice between the third and fourth floors, and a banded cill course on the corner block. The eaves are corniced, and the corner block features a balustraded, stepped parapet. Two-storey corniced canted bays incorporate fielded panels. The doorpieces are slightly advanced, with consolled, corniced, and keystoned round arches, narrow sidelights, and plain fanlights. The first-floor windows have architraved, bracketed, and corniced surrounds, while the corner block features pedimented windows. The third-floor windows have architraved surrounds, and tripartite windows sit above the canted bays. Small segmental windows with shouldered surrounds are found in the attic storey.

The Walker Street elevation is four storeys with five bays, with the outer bays slightly advanced. A string course runs between the windows at the first floor. The main doorway has round arched surrounds with a plain fanlight above, and the outer bays at ground floor have round arched recessed surrounds. The first floor has architraved, corniced, and bracketed openings, some pedimented.

The rear elevation is four storeys with ten bays, the eastern portion being advanced. It is constructed of squared coursed rubble with ashlar quoins, cills, and rybats. Several single-storey bays have been added at ground floor, with flat roofs and rounded corners. Fenestration is regular, with some tripartite windows at the ground and first floors.

The interior retains original Victorian classical features, although it has been converted into office space. Small entrance vestibules are located behind the main doorways, featuring glazed inner screens and doorways. A cantilevered half-turn staircase leads to the back right of the building, with a corniced and decorated cupola above. Detailed cornicing is present on the ground, first, and second floors, with floreate and egg and dart mouldings. Detailed plaster strapwork decorates some ceilings, although later alterations include suspended ceilings and partitions.

Predominantly plate glass is fitted within timber sash and case windows, with some four-pane timber sash and case windows at the fourth floor. The roof is a double pitch M-section with grey slates. Corniced ashlar gable ends and ridge stacks have modern clay cans. Cast-iron railings on ashlar copes edge the basement recess to the street, and cast-iron rainwater goods are in place.