18 Hill Street, Edinburgh

18 Hill Street in Edinburgh is a classical building designed by James Hill between 1788 and 1794. Originally a mirrored pair of three-storey and attic houses, it has been converted into a single office. The structure features droved cream ashlar sandstone with polished dressings, and the stone has been cleaned. The ground floor has smaller windows with a cill course, and there is an eaves course above. The inner bays have broad tripartite architraved doorpieces adorned with a fluted frieze and a mutule cornice, leading to deep-set flush-panelled doors. The second-floor window in the centre of No 20 is blind. Each house has a pair of modern piend-roofed bowed dormers.

The rear elevations are made of irregular rubble and consist of two storeys and two bays, featuring tripartite windows in the outer bays at ground level. There have been significant alterations, including the infilling of central stair windows and the addition of a large modern slate-hung box dormer to No 20.

The windows are timber sash and case with 12 panes. The building has ashlar coped skews, rebuilt stone stacks, and a grey slate roof.

Inside, the two houses have been united as a single office, and the stair of No 18 has been replaced by a lift. There have been considerable alterations to all floors, but the essential shape of the rooms and the cornicing remain intact. Each house originally had two large rooms on the first floor, spanning three bays across the front and one to the rear, featuring a large pilastered tripartite window.