Cramond Cafe, 4, 5 Riverside, Cramond, Edinburgh

Cramond Cafe, located at 4 and 5 Riverside in Cramond, Edinburgh, is a building dating back to the mid-17th century. It was recast and converted by Ian Lindsay & Partners between 1959 and 1960. The structure is a plain vernacular, rectangular-plan building that stands two stories high with an attic, featuring a six-bay subdivided block that houses a restaurant on the ground floor and a double-height flat above. Access to No 6 is available at the rear through a single opening in a rubble-faced grey sandstone wall. The exterior is finished with whitewashed harl and painted margins, with a plain surround at the first floor in the penultimate bay to the right. The eaves course is continuous, and the openings are asymmetrically arranged.

On the entrance elevation, there are two-leaf boarded timber doors located in the penultimate bays to the left and right (Nos 4 and 5). Small square windows are present in the central bays, with single windows at the ground level in the outer left and right bays. The first floor features regularly spaced windows in all four bays, while small square windows are situated at the third floor in the penultimate bays to the outer left and right.

The side elevation includes a single window at the third floor, offset to the left of center, and a two-leaf boarded timber door (No 6) set within the wall to the right. The third floor has 6-pane casement windows, while the ground level features 9-pane timber mullioned windows in the central bays and 12-pane timber sash and case windows in the remaining openings on both elevations. The roof is covered with machine-made red pantiles, featuring a raised skew at the south side, a harled apex stack, precast concrete coping, and two circular cans.

Inside, Nos 4 and 5 have been converted into a single restaurant in 1984, with the kitchen located to the right and the dining area to the left. Although various partitions have been removed and some new ones added, the original rubble finish remains visible beneath the whitewash, the stone window reveals are intact, and the fireplace has been preserved, although a modern heater has been inserted.