259-261 Canongate, Edinburgh

The building comprises five adjoining but distinct blocks of 1956-57 tenements, designed by Robert Hurd with project architect Ian Begg. Constructed in a modern Scots vernacular style, the complex occupies a sloping corner site facing south onto the Canongate and east onto New Street, incorporating shops at ground level to numbers 263-1 and 251-3.

Numbers 259-263 consist of two two-bay tenements. Their roofline is divided by flat skews and a rubble stack, with a combination of sandstone ashlar and pale green render on the facade of number 263. A timber boarded door with an iron grille above a glazed panel is present. The ground floor features a rubble finish with roll-moulded style openings. Large, recessed bow windows are incorporated into the shops, featuring vertical timber astragals and bowed sills.

Numbers 255-257 are a five-bay block finished in red harling, set back from the street. The bay on the extreme right projects as a timber outshot from the first to the third floor. A low rubble and ashlar “forestair” provides access at ground level. A timber boarded, part-glazed door is at number 255, while number 257 has a modern replacement door. Small iron-railed balconies are positioned in front of the large windows on the extreme left, from the first to the third floor.

Numbers 251-253 consist of a cream-harled block with a six-bay sandstone ashlar arcade at ground level, housing shops with shopfronts similar to those at numbers 259-263, and with an additional single arch on each return. Large square window openings with raised sandstone margins are found on the extreme left at the first, second and third floors.

Number 249 is an ashlar corner gabled block with a rubble base course (two bays fronting the Canongate, three facing New Street), and balconies similar to those on numbers 255-257 from the first to the third floor on the right-hand side. The left side has bipartite windows with raised margins. A further single bay to the extreme left, constructed in rubble and containing a stairwell, is punctuated by two oval windows, accompanied by a timber boarded, part-glazed door. Basement windows are visible on New Street.

The section at 43 New Street is a three-bay ashlar block with raised margin bipartites to the left, alongside a single rubble bay containing a stairwell and a two-leaf timber boarded door.

The rear elevations exhibit a similar design treatment to the fronts.

The roofs are covered in grey slate, with red pantiles on numbers 255-7. Flat skews are present. Rubble stacks are found on numbers 259-263, rendered stacks on numbers 251-3, and an ashlar wallhead stack on number 249. The original windows were small-pane metal-framed, tilt and pivot designs (some with 16 panes). Later replacements include metal-framed casements, 12-pane timber sash and case windows, and some uPVC glazing.