128 Causewayside, Edinburgh

This is a circa 1864 tenement designed by Robert Reid Raeburn. It comprises a 3-storey building adjoined at right angles by a slightly later 4-storey tenement, both featuring shops and a public house at ground-floor level. The building is constructed of cream sandstone ashlar, with rubble sides and rear, and painted shopfronts, set upon a raised base course. A cornice runs above the uniform 3-bay original shopfronts and public house, with 1st and 2nd floor cill courses. An eaves cornice further separates the 2nd and 3rd floor bays along the Causewayside elevation, where the 3rd-floor bays have a simple cornice and blocking course.

The North (Grange Road) elevation is a 15-bay tenement, with the two outer bays to the east and three to the west slightly advanced. Three doors to the tenements are dispersed between regular shop fronts. The doors are generally 2-leaf panelled, except at Nos 4, 6, and 7, which are single panelled with plate glass fanlights and glazed in-goes. The falling ground level to the outer left bays is evident at the lower floor levels. Architraved windows are regularly placed at 1st and 2nd floors in each bay. The outer bays to the left are overstepped with two 3rd-floor bays that continue the line of the Causewayside elevation.

The East (Causewayside) elevation has 8 bays, with curved north-east corner bays grouped as 6-2. Two 3-bay shopfronts are positioned to the left of centre, with No. 136 featuring a door to the left, shop windows to the centre and right. A later bipartite window is flanked by doors leading to the public house on the right, with a tenement door at the centre. The curved corner bays are recessed, with a former shop door now blocked and converted into windows flanked by large windows. Regular fenestration is present on each bay at the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd floors, with architraved surrounds to the corner bay windows.

The West (end of Grange Road block) elevation features a single-storey flat-roofed garage at ground floor, with predominantly blank space above, punctuated by decorative gun loops. The South (rear of Grange Road block) elevation has a semi-circular stair tower projecting to the outer left; the remainder of the elevation is not visible.

The sash and case windows predominantly have a 4-pane glazing pattern. Replacement windows are present on the 1st floor of No. 138 Causewayside, and modern small-pane windows are in the public house. Grey slate piended roofs are topped by three box dormers on the West of the Grange Road block. Additional features include a coped ashlar wallhead, mutual gable stacks, and moulded octagonal cans. The interiors were not inspected in 1990.