Black Vaults, 85, 86, 87 Giles Street, Leith, Edinburgh

Black Vaults is a warehouse building located at 85, 86, and 87 Giles Street, Leith, Edinburgh. The main structure dates to 1682, although it incorporates vaults that may be from the 16th century. The building was heightened in 1785 and subsequently converted into flats and offices in 1984. It is a four-story, eleven-bay warehouse with an enclosed courtyard to the front. The exterior is primarily cream-colored sandstone, with coursed rubble construction and some ashlar dressings, featuring relieving arches above most windows.

The northwest (front) elevation is dominated by a gabled central bay containing a stack dated 1785. Above the ground floor is a carved inscribed panel. A large rectangular opening is visible at ground floor level. The 3rd and 9th bays feature former hoist doors (now fitted with iron window guards) and hoist gables. A doorway is located at ground floor in the 10th bay, which is now bricked up. The 1st-floor windows of the 10th and 11th bays have been heightened, and their new transoms connect to blocked 2nd-floor windows.

The southwest (Giles Street) elevation has three gabled bays with moulded skews and an apex stack. The first floor contains tall transomed windows, with the central window being bipartite and featuring a bracketted cill and finialled pediment bearing the carved date '1785'. The 3rd floor features two windows, and a central inscribed panel. The gablehead has a corniced window with a window guard.

The northeast (St Anthony Street) elevation also has a gabled form with an apex stack. A broad pedestrian doorway is located at ground floor level. Broad, bipartite windows are visible in the centre bay on the 2nd and 3rd floors, with a window guard, and the 1st floor windows are partly blocked.

The rear (southeast) elevation is irregular, with single and bipartite windows, and includes modern dormers and skylights to the roof.

Most of the windows are modern small-pane timber casements, although some retain their original 12-pane sash and case windows. The roof is modern pantiled, with three apex stacks.

Internally, the building's cellar features vaulted ceilings, a central tunnel, and four smaller vaulted cellars leading off. A ground floor room boasts a coved plaster ceiling with elaborate floral motifs, including a cartouche featuring putti and a swagged niche, believed to be in the style of Thomas Clayton (mid 18th century). A large room on the 1st floor, extending over two floors, has deep cornices and late 19th/early 20th-century woodwork.

The property includes boundary walls and gatepiers. The tall, later 19th-century boundary walls, with flat coping, enclose the front courtyard. Two tall red sandstone ashlar gatepiers are present, featuring pedimented ogival coping with ball finials.