40 Constitution Street, Edinburgh

36 and 38 Constitution Street in Edinburgh is a three-storey, six-bay tenement building that likely dates from the later 18th century but was significantly remodeled in 1886 and restored in 1987. The ground floor features a later shopfront from 1886, an off-centre pend, and a large brick-built printing works added in 1886 at the rear. The front elevation is rendered to simulate ashlar, while the rear is constructed from coursed rubble. The ground floor openings have roll-moulded reveals, and the first-floor windows are architraved with open swan-neck pediments that frame thistle or fleur-de-lis motifs.

On the front elevation, the pend is off-centre to the left and has plain cast-iron two-leaf gates. The pend and outer bays are flanked at fascia level by acanthus leaf capitals that support pedimented panels, with dates of 1886 to the left of the pend and 1987 to the right. The shopfront on the outer left has a red sandstone surround with basket-arched openings, a recessed doorway at the centre, slender timber colonnette mullions with foliate capitals, and stained glass panels above the display windows. There are two common stair doorways in the right bays, featuring panelled doors with border-glazed fanlights, flanked by single windows. The upper floors have regular fenestration, and the same detailing is present on a single bay return to the north.

The rear elevation features a segmental-arched pend made from earlier fabric and a small brick projection to the right. The large three-storey, nine-bay L-plan brick-built printing works has segmental-arched paired windows divided by brick pilasters and adjoins No 42 at right angles, partly obscuring a bowed stairwell.

The building has timber sash and case windows, with plate glass glazing on the first floor, 12-pane windows on the second floor and rear, and multi-pane timber casements in the printing works. The roof is slate with lead flashings, a coped apex, and a central transverse stack.

Inside, the shop at No 42 features ornate gilded cornices.