186, 188, 190, 192, 194, 196 Bruntsfield Place, Edinburgh

This building, located at 186, 188, 190, 192, 194, and 196 Bruntsfield Place in Edinburgh, was designed by George Beattie & Son in 1889. It is a five-storey corner tenement block featuring shops on the ground floor. The exterior is made of cream sandstone with ashlar detailing, including a cornice above the shops, a cill course on the second floor, a string course above the third floor, and a cornice at the eaves level. The building has ornamental aprons on the second, third, and fourth floor single windows, with chamfered reveals and ashlar mullions.

The northeast elevation, facing Bruntsfield Avenue, has six bays and features a four-storey chamfered corner with a canted window above the ground floor, which has a 1-2-1 configuration and a finialled pyramidal roof on the outer left. There is a shop door at the corner and a four-storey canted window on the outer right with a finialled half-piended roof. A coped wallhead stack rises from a corbel course at the third floor in the central bay, flanked by two bays of single windows.

The southeast elevation, facing Bruntsfield Place, includes a six-bay tenement at Nos 176-184 (excluding the angle bay) with a four-storey canted window on the outer left and a finialled half-piended roof. The adjoining bay has bipartite windows, while a blank bay is left of centre with a corniced and grooved wallhead stack rising from a corbel course at the third floor. The bays to the right of centre feature single windows on the right and bipartite windows on the left, with a corniced and grooved wallhead stack on the outer right, also rising from a corbel course at the third floor.

Nos 186-196 form another six-bay tenement, with four-storey canted windows on the outer bays, both topped with finialled half-piended roofs. The second bay from the left contains bipartite windows, while the remaining bays have single windows. There are two corniced wallhead stacks linked by a short stone balustrade, positioned off centre to the right and both rising from a corbel course at the third floor. The doorways to the common stair at Nos 180 and 190 are roll-moulded with stepped hoodmoulds and plate glass square fanlights. The shopfronts are plain timber with recessed doors, although some original detailing remains at Nos 192-194, while Nos 186 has modern replacements. The building features plate glass timber sash and case windows, some of which are modern replacements, and has a slate roof with lead flashings. The interior was not seen in 1992.