52, 54, 56, 58, 60 Portobello High Street, Portobello, Edinburgh

This is a substantial, four-story tenement building, designed by Edward Calvert in 1896-1897, situated on Portobello High Street in Edinburgh. The building presents five bays to its southwest (principal) elevation and three bays to its southeast elevation, with a corner bay prominently positioned at the junction of High Street and Pipe Street.

The exterior is constructed of cream and pink sandstone, with the main stone roughly textured ("stugged") and the dressings polished. A continuous cill course runs along the first, second, and third floors, with the cills of specific windows slightly raised. An eaves course further defines the building’s silhouette.

The southwest elevation features bays grouped closely together. Each bay has bipartite (divided into two) windows on every floor, with some exceptions. A deeply recessed panelled door is located to the left of the centre on the ground floor, surmounted by a rectangular plate glass fanlight. Shops occupy the remaining ground-floor bays. A blank bay on the far right incorporates a pedimented plaque on the second floor, bearing the date and the insignia of the Cooperative Society. Certain windows on the second and third floors, in bays one and four, and bays two and three, have slightly raised, curved aprons beneath the cills. The remaining windows have corbelled cills. The corner bay is a full-height canted window, with a hexagonal console at the first floor. It has panelled aprons to the first-floor windows, a carved band course between the first and second floors, and further aprons to the third-floor windows. A hidden additional storey is incorporated into the canted window, featuring carved roundels depicting a female figure with a large compass, a possible depiction of ships with cargo signifying commerce, shaking hands representing union, and a beehive representing industry. An eaves course with a Greek key pattern and a bell-cast roof culminating in a ball finial complete the elaborate details of the corner.

The southeast elevation has bays closely spaced, with windows to each floor. A shop front occupies the ground floor on the left, and windows are present on each floor above. A bipartite window is located in the right-hand bay and on each floor of the central and right bays, with curved aprons on the first and third bays. Corbelled cills are present on the central bay.

The building originally had predominantly plate glass timber sash and case windows, although later pivot windows have been installed on the second floor of the southwest elevation. The roof is covered in grey slate, with a leaded platform facing Portobello High Street and a roof light to the southeast. The corner canted bay utilizes fish-scale grey slates. A shouldered ashlar wallhead stack is located on the fifth bay of the southwest elevation; a later ashlar stack with a coping wallhead and concrete shoulders is present on the southeast elevation. The interior of the building was not inspected in 1994.