21, 23 Barony Street, Edinburgh

This is a predominantly three- and four-storey, 25-bay terraced tenement located on Barony Street in Edinburgh, built in the mid-19th century by Alexander Black. Numbers 25 to 31 are four storeys high and have a 31-bay ground floor. The exterior is constructed of broached ashlar sandstone, with polished ashlar at ground floor level. Notable features include a base course, a band course between the ground and first floors, which sweeps upward between numbers 13 and 15, and a projecting cill at the first and second floor windows. Cornices and blocking courses are present at the second floor, with variations in design, including returned and terminated elements at the west elevation, particularly between numbers 13 and 15, and numbers 19 and 21. Numbers 25 to 31 feature a cornice and blocking course at the third floor, also returned and terminated at the west elevation.

The north (principal) elevation displays a varied arrangement of predominantly four-panel timber doors with plate glass rectangular fanlights. There are mirrored two-bay former shop fronts at numbers 25 and 27, composed of eight-panel timber doors flanked by multi-pane windows. A six-panel timber door with a plate glass, rectangular fanlight is located in the fifth bay from the left, and a four-bay former shop front is found to the right, with a modern timber door and plate glass fanlight. The remaining ground floor bays have windows, and the floors above have regular fenestration.

The east elevation adjoins a terrace and is documented separately (34-40 Broughton Street). The west (1 and 2 Albany Lane) elevation is a coursed rubble gable with polished ashlar at ground floor. It incorporates a centrally positioned window at ground floor, a window to the left of centre within a partly-infilled former doorway, and infilled windows to the outer left and right. Above, windows are centered on each floor, with a pair of small windows – a two-pane window to the left and a plate glass window to the right – flanking the first-floor window.

A coped random rubble wall is situated to the right of the west elevation, incorporating a modern timber door within a pedestrian gate with chamfered margins. This wall returns at the rear elevation. A decorative wall letter box is located to the right of the door, featuring a cartouche, a coat-of-arms design, and flanking pilasters. The rear elevation was not observed in 1998.

The building features predominantly four-pane timber sash and case windows, a grey slate M-roof, five pairs of slate-hung tripartite piended dormers, and a box dormer between piended dormers at number 9. Cast-iron rainwater goods are present, alongside coped, rendered ridge stacks, a broached ashlar ridge stack, corniced gablehead stacks, circular cans, coped skews. The interiors were not observed.