453, 455, 457, 459, 461 And 463 Lawnmarket, Edinburgh

2 Lady Stair's Close is a five-storey and attic tenement building, designed by Stewart Henbest Capper in 1892, which incorporates earlier elements. The building features a symmetrical nine-bay facade with shops on the ground floor. It includes three blocks with three-bay sections, each having two-storey canted oriel windows supported by sculpted corbels that display emblems of the Arts, Sciences, and Crafts on the second and third floors. These oriels overhang the fourth floor, which is topped by wide gabled timber dormer windows with paired openings in the attic. The exterior is constructed of coursed stugged grey sandstone with polished red sandstone dressings, while the oriels and the fourth and attic floors are finished in pink harl. The ground floor is painted. A continuous balcony with terracotta balusters runs along the first floor. The windows are set in tabbed surrounds.

The northern rear elevation features cream harl with red sandstone dressings and broad eaves. To the left, there is a two-bay recessed block with a flat-arched pend that has a metal lintel and is flanked by painted carved timber dragon brackets. This section is regularly fenestrated and includes a tripartite dormer in the attic. The central block, which slightly advances, is also regularly fenestrated and has a corbelled corner on the upper left. To the right, an advanced crowstep-gabled two-bay block has irregular fenestration, chamfered corners, and a corbelled feature below the gable. It includes concrete access balconies with metal brackets and railings at the re-entrant angle, along with an older carved panel and a modern plaque on the ground floor wall. The outer right section has a recessed block that contains a five-storey drum stair tower at the center, topped with a finialled bell-cast slated roof. This tower features a timber boarded door with wrought-iron hinges set in a hood- and roll-moulded red sandstone surround.

The building predominantly features 12-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows, grey slate roofing, and corniced rubble chimney stacks with tall circular flues.