30, 31, 32 Castle Terrace, Edinburgh

30, 31, and 32 Castle Terrace is a corner tenement block designed by Sir James Gowans between 1868 and 1870. This three-storey building with an attic features a mansard roof and a basement for Nos 30 and 32. It has two bays on the northeast side, three bays on the southeast side, and a splayed corner bay on the east. The exterior is finished in polished ashlar stone, with banding at the ground level. There are string courses that separate the floors, and the eaves are supported by stone brackets. The windows have decorative bracketed surrounds, and the first floor features serrated Moorish lintels. The third floor has round-arched windows that push up against the bracketed eaves below the dormers.

On the northeast elevation, there is a round-arched window to the right, which has a round-arched stone mullion set in a recess with serrated carved decoration in the spandrels. The attic features hooded dormers.

The east elevation showcases a gabled corner bay, flanked by pilaster strips with bracketed cornices at both the ground and second floor levels, topped with carved putti. There is a two-leaf timber panelled door set in a Serlian surround, which includes a hooded round-arched fanlight (currently blocked) and sidelights. Above this entrance are tripartite windows with decorative stone mullions, hoodmoulded at the second floor. The gable includes a hooded pentagonal window with a ridged soffit and a heraldic device above, featuring a statue of a crowned female figure on the flattened apex of the gable, which is adorned with fish-scale and cross-banding details.

On the southeast elevation, the entrance is located in the left bay, consisting of a timber panelled door with a round-arched fanlight set in a round-arched glazed doorpiece, flanked by sidelights within a recess that also features serrated carved decoration in the spandrels. The centre bay has tripartite windows with decorative stone mullions at the ground, first, and second floors, with recessed panels at the ground and first floors and chip carving at the ground level. The attic has steeply-pitched dormers with stone bracketed eaves in the left and centre bays, along with a small hooded dormer on the right.

The windows predominantly feature plate glass in timber sash and case frames, and the roof is covered with graded grey slates. A moulded stone ridge runs along the roofline, and there are fluted ashlar stalks with scalloped, bracketed cornices, as well as decorative octagonal cans with serrated tops.

The property is enclosed by a boundary wall topped with decorative cast-iron railings, which are set on a low ashlar boundary wall. Stone piers mark the entrance at No 32.