50, 50A Queen Street, Edinburgh

Dating to circa 1790, with alterations in the mid-19th century, 49 and 49A Queen Street are a pair of former terraced houses. They are three storeys high with basement and attic levels, and originally had three bays each. The front facades are constructed from droved Craigleith sandstone ashlar, with polished square cut rustication at ground level and a cill course at the first floor. Fenestration is regular, featuring polished margin drafts. The front doors are flush-panelled; at No 49, there is a decorative metal fanlight and a later Roman Doric columned porch with a triglyph frieze, as well as a full-width slate-hung box dormer with two windows. No 50 has two bowed dormers, the one to the left being tripartite. The basements have flush-panelled doors and three-pane fanlights.

The rear elevations are of rubble construction, with a projecting closet tower at the centre, flanked by irregular bays. No 49 has a three-storey section with a mansard roof and a tripartite window to the left at both ground and first floor levels. No 50 is raised one storey and has a roof terrace with a garret dormer.

The windows are timber sash and case, with 12-pane plate glass to the ground and first floors of No 50 and 16-pane to the dormers (the left dormer of No 50 has plate glass casements). Grey slates cover the roof.

The interior of No 49 features a 19th-century compartmentalised ceiling with a Greek key cornice in the Entrance Hall, along with a modern plate glass screen. A consoled archway leads to the central stairhall, which retains its original cornice. A compact, curving cantilevered stair has square iron banisters, and there is a circular cupola above. The former Dining Room has a panelled dado and later plaster-panelled walls, a heavy Greek key and egg and dart cornice, fluted Corinthian pilasters supporting a beam, and a sideboard recess, along with a black slate chimneypiece. A rear right room has a 19th-century cornice and a reeded marble chimneypiece. The first-floor landing is very tight, and the former Drawing Room has a brown veined marble chimneypiece. A pair of double doors with cornices and clasping pilasters leads to other rooms, which have been joined to form an L-plan and include a 19th-century cornice and chimneypiece matching that at the front. The second-floor landing has fluted Corinthian pilasters to the passage, which may be re-used from elsewhere, and a consoled archway to the attic stair.

In No 50, a later glazed screen is in the Hall, and a consoled archway leads to a stairhall similar to that in No 49, but with the stair aligned with the hallway. A shallow former Dining Room has a sideboard recess and a 19th-century chimneypiece. A rear right room has an arched recess and a tripartite window. At the first floor, the former Drawing Room has a swagged frieze to the cornice and corniced doors with clasping pilasters, along with a plain 19th-century chimneypiece, and temporary partitions are present. On the second floor, there is access to an office and an attic flat above No 51.

Cast-iron spearhead railings are present, along with a pair of cast-iron lamp standards to No 49.