Leith Central Station Offices, 3, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 21, 23 Leith Walk, Edinburgh

Leith Central Station Offices

Built between 1898 and 1903 by architects Blyth & Westland, this is a substantial Italianate office building complex forming an L-plan around the former Leith Central Station site. The buildings range from 2 to 4 storeys in height, with 17 bays fronting Leith Walk and 21 bays along Duke Street. The most prominent feature is a curved corner section of 3 bays where these two streets meet, marked by a square 2-stage clock tower at roof level and original entrance doors beneath.

The buildings are constructed in polished sandstone ashlar with ground-floor shopfronts, some retaining painted finishes alongside more recent alterations. The ground floor features intermittent base courses between shop windows, with stop-chamfered surrounds and roll-mouldings to the window and door openings. Above this runs a string course, frieze, and dentilled cornice with a band course over the shopfronts. The 2-storey sections have framing pilasters with channelled details at the ends.

Windows are evenly spaced across all elevations. At first-floor level, windows are round-arched with aprons, moulded architraves, impost blocks and keystones. Second-floor windows are architraved with bracketed, corniced cills and cornices over, while third-floor windows are architraved with corniced cills. A string course at first-floor cill level runs across the elevations, with a bracketed cornice, band course and parapet at roof level of the 2-storey section. This parapet is decorated with panelled dies between bays and ball finials at the corners.

The Duke Street (north) elevation comprises adjoining 4-storey and 2-storey sections of 14 and 7 bays respectively. The 4-storey block angles slightly between bays 4 and 5 and terminates in blank gable ends except for a single window in the east gable. One ground-floor window at bay 20 is distinguished by a bracketed, corniced cill, lugged architrave and curvilinear dentilled cornice.

The curved corner section frames a prominent 2-arch doorpiece at ground level with round-headed arches flanked by channelled pilasters with capitals and bases, keystones at the arch centres, and a cornice above with an engaged panelled parapet. The clock tower above has a lower stage with channelled treatment and band course, rising to an upper stage with architraved clock faces, corner pilasters with capitals and bases, and an octagonal ribbed dome topped with ball finials at the corners and finials at the apex. Scrolled brackets support the clock tower base at the corners. The corner section retains channelled pilaster framing (missing ball finials to the right), and a window is inserted to the left of one entrance doorpiece.

The Leith Walk (west) elevation follows the same pattern as described above, with a window in the first bay matching one on the Duke Street elevation. Nine-panelled timber entrance doors flank a public house on this elevation, with a small inner door for staff entry.

Roofs are slate with shallow pitches to the 2-storey block and piended sections. Cast-iron downpipes serve the 4-storey block. The 2-storey building has stacks with bracketed cornices, while the 4-storey block features wallhead stacks, multi-flue apex stacks at the gables and along the ridge, all with cornicing. Upper floors retain original plate glass timber sash-and-case windows, though ground-floor glazing is modern while roughly following the original pattern.

Interior of the Central Bar (designed by Peter L Henderson, 1899): The lobbies feature a mosaic floor bearing the words 'The Central Bar' and the building numbers 7 and 9. Two-leaf timber inner doors with arched panelling and etched glass lead to the bar interior. Upper lobby walls and windows are fitted with coloured leaded glass in free patterns.

The main bar interior is executed in a highly elaborate Classical style. The walls are tiled throughout by Minton Hollins & Co of Stoke-on-Trent, with inset vertical rectangular panels of mirrors, ornamental panels, and four scenes depicting sporting activities: yacht racing at the Cowes Regatta, golf (represented by a portrait of the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII), hare coursing, and hunting with pointers. A tiled foliage scrollwork frieze runs below an egg-and-dart moulding and modillion course. The ceiling is compartmented in Jacobethan-style lincrusta. The bar counter is U-shaped with paired Corinthian pilasters, a curved reeded frieze and glazed timber partitions. An elaborate arcaded gantry against the back wall is supported by four carved griffins and has a deep architrave above; a lower island gantry stands in front. Four deep bays of U-plan fixed seating occupy the left side of the bar, with a carved timber chimneypiece to the right.

The northern bar (at 2-6 Duke Street) retains a broad frieze featuring classical figures in a landscape, positioned below the cornice.