18 Montgomery Street, Edinburgh

A range of buildings on Montgomery Street, Edinburgh, was designed by William H. Playfair and constructed in phases between 1824 and 1881. Numbers 4-14 were built around 1826, numbers 16-26 around 1864, and numbers 28-32, extending to 28-30 Windsor Street, around 1881. The buildings are constructed of polished ashlar, with a droved finish to the basement; the rear elevations are predominantly squared coursed rubble with dressed margins.

The buildings are three storeys high with a basement and attic, forming a long range along Montgomery Street, with a quadrant corner leading to a shorter range on Windsor Street. Architectural detailing includes a base course, a dividing band between the basement and ground floors, a cill course to the first and second floors, a band course and main cornice dividing the second floor and attic, an eaves cornice and blocking course. Fenestration is regular, with sunken aprons to the ground floor – panelled on the Windsor Street elevation and corner. Architraves are present on the ground, first, second, and attic floors of the Windsor Street elevation and corner.

The north (Montgomery Street) elevation has 29 bays (30 at ground floor level). Steps with platts lead to doors in the third, fifth, and seventh bays from the right, with areas beneath the platts now blocked with a combination of glazing and walls. Ground floor doors are located in the fourth, sixth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, twenty-third, twenty-fifth, twenty-seventh, and twenty-ninth bays from the left, also with platts and timber-panelled doors featuring rectangular fanlights (varying in the number of panes; one has been replaced with a louvre). A basket-arched opening provides access to a pend in the twentieth, twenty-first and twenty-second bays. The northeast corner is a two-bay quadrant elevation, slightly recessed. The east (Windsor Street) elevation is seven bays wide, with steps and platts leading to doors and fanlights in the third and sixth bays.

The majority of windows have predominantly four-pane glazing, with some areas, including the rear elevation and a section of the Montgomery Street elevation, featuring twelve-pane glazing. Windows are generally timber sash and case. The roofs are M-pitched and covered in grey slate, with stone skews and skewputts. Ten corniced ashlar ridge stacks are visible on the Montgomery Street elevation, with two to far right preceded by individual octagonal flues. Two stacks with octagonal flues are present on the Windsor Street elevation, and two corniced gablehead stacks are on the south gable. The stacks have predominantly circular cans. Cast-iron railings with spear-head finials and dog bars edge the basement recess and platts—a hexagonal patterned top border is present on the railings of 4-14 Montgomery Street, while 16-20 Montgomery Street has a circular border.