Edinburgh School Of English, 271 Canongate, Edinburgh

The Edinburgh School of English, located at 271 Canongate, is a plain Gothic building that was originally constructed as a church in 1869. This two-storey structure with a basement sits on a sloping site and features five bays facing south onto Canongate. The south elevation includes a pointed-arched doorway with a timber two-leaf boarded door and a continuous hoodmould above it. Flanking the doorway are groups of three short cusped, hoodmoulded windows on the ground floor, while the outer bays are recessed and have small single hoodmoulded windows on the first floor. The first floor showcases paired cusped lancets, with two in the center that have trefoils and a foiled oculus above, all set within a hoodmould. The windows to the left and right have plain oculi and hoodmoulds above, with all hoodmoulds featuring foliate carved stops. The building is constructed of coursed cream sandstone on the south side and rubble on the west, with dressed chamfered margins and polished surfaces on the south. It has a base course and a string course between the ground and first floors on the south side, flat skews, and carved skewputts.

On the west elevation facing Cranston Street, there are seven bays, with an advanced three-bay section on the right that contains three pairs of cusped hoodmoulded windows and three single windows above. The left side features geometric traceried windows at the ground level and a clerestorey above. There is also a timber boarded door leading to the basement.

The building has non-traditional glazing, with original leaded glazing in the oculi on the south side and Velux-type windows in the attic. The roof is covered with grey slate and includes coped apex stacks and a decorative wallhead stack on the west side.

Surrounding the property are low coped sandstone boundary walls along Canongate and Cranston Street, topped with cast-iron railings. The interior has been modernized with mezzanine levels and a converted attic.