56 Albany Street, Edinburgh

56 Albany Street in Edinburgh is a former manse of St Mary's Free Church, designed by J T Rochhead in 1859. This building features two storeys, an attic, and a basement, and is constructed from polished ashlar sandstone. It has a cornice and a coped parapet at the first floor, along with an ashlar entrance platt that overhangs the basement.

The principal elevation includes a pointed-arched doorpiece with moulded reveals, a panelled timber door, and a plate glass pointed-arched fanlight located in the right bay at the principal floor. Gabletted walls flank the platt that leads to the street, which also features a gothic detailed boot scraper. To the left, there is a broad canted bay at the basement and the floors above, consisting of five cusped tracery lights on each floor, with chamfered margins and removed hoodmoulds. The basement area is flagged.

The west elevation is part of an adjoining terrace, while the east elevation is next to a modern building. The windows are timber sash and case with plate glass. The roof is covered with grey slate and includes a pair of jerkin-headed slate-hung dormers topped with cast-iron cross finials. Additional features include cast-iron rainwater goods, a rendered ridge stack with a coped top and circular cans, and coped skews.

The interior was not seen during the last inspection in 1998. The property is also adorned with ashlar copes topped by cast-iron railings that feature gothic detailing, quatrefoil motifs, and cross finials.