259-261 Canongate, Edinburgh

Robert Hurd, 1956-7, project architect Ian Begg. 5 adjoining but distinct blocks of 4-storey tenements in modern Scots vernacular idiom; shops at ground to Nos 263-1 and 251-3. On sloping corner site facing S at Canongate, E at New Street.

NOS 259-263: 2 2-bay tenements; roofline divided by flat skews and rubble stack; part sandstone ashlar/part pale green render to 263; timber boarded door with iron grille over glazed panel; rubble ground floor to 259-261; both with roll-moulded style openings to ground; large recessed bow windows to shops with vertical timber astragals and bowed sills.

NOS 255-257: 5-bay red harled block set back from street; bay to outer right treated as timber outshot from 1st to 3rd floor; rubble and ashlar low 'forestair' at ground. Timber boarded part-glazed door to 255; that to 257 modern replacement. Small iron-railed balconies to large windows at outer left from 1st to 3rd floor.

NOS 251-253: 6-bay cream harled block with sandstone ashlar 4-bay arcade at ground, shops within (shopfronts similar to Nos 259-263); further single arch to each return. Large square window openings with raised ashlar margins to outer left at 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors.

NO 249: ashlar corner gabled block with rubble basecourse (2 bays to Canongate, 3 to New Street); balconies (as above) from 1st to 3rd floor at right; bipartite windows to left with raised margins. Further single bay (containing stairwell) to outer left in rubble; 2 oval windows; timber boarded part-glazed door. Basement windows to New Street.

43 NEW STREET: 3-bay ashlar section; raised margin bipartites to left. Further single rubble bay (stairwell); timber boarded 2-leaf door.

N (REAR) ELEVATIONS: similar treatment to front elevations.

Grey slate roofs, red pantiles to Nos 255-7; flat skews; rubble stacks to 259-263, rendered to 251-3, ashlar wallhead stack to 249. Original small-pane metal-framed tilt and pivot windows (some 16-pane); metal-framed casements and 12-pane timber sash and case windows; some replacement uPVC glazing.