Police Station, 118 Portobello High Street, Portobello, Edinburgh

The Police Station at 118 Portobello High Street in Edinburgh was designed by Robert Paterson and completed in 1877. This two-storey building features a central tower and follows a three-bay Franco-Baronial L-plan, with later additions and internal alterations. It is constructed from bull-faced squared and snecked sandstone with polished dressings, while the northeast elevation is finished in brick. Notable architectural details include a base course, chamfered arrises, and a moulded cill course at the first floor.

The southwest elevation, which faces the High Street, is nearly symmetrical with an advanced central bay that is buttressed at the ground floor. It has a broad entrance flanked by columns and a moulded four-centred arch doorpiece. Above the entrance, there is a corbelled and mullioned oriel window at the first floor, adorned with cast-iron brattishing. A corbelled string course runs above the first floor, and the eaves of the tower feature corbelled diminutive bartizans. A clock is set within a crow-stepped gable, which is also present on the northwest and southeast elevations of the tower. The tower includes gabled and louvered dormers, along with an intricate cast-iron cage and weather vane at the apex. The flanking bays have tripartite windows at the ground level with hoodmoulds and a semi-circular central section, and tripartite windows are also found at the first floor above. A finely carved lintel, corbelled to a crow-stepped gable, features a trefoil relief in the gablehead. A foundation stone at the southeast angle is inscribed: "Erected 1878 Thomas Wood Esq. Provost.” There is also a corbelled bartizan above the eaves.

The windows are stone mullioned with timber cases, and the roof is covered in grey slate with a complex pattern, including an M-gable and various other additions to the rear. The northwest side has a rendered and coped stack, while the southeast features an ashlar and coped polygonal wallhead stack.

Inside, the first floor has a panelled ceiling and walls, particularly in the superintendent's room, which includes a panelled door, plaster cornice, and panelled ingoes around the window recess. The building has false ceilings, and original features may be concealed behind them.