3-4 India Buildings, Victoria Street, Edinburgh

3-4 India Buildings, Victoria Street, Edinburgh

David Cousin designed this Grade A listed building in 1864-6. It is a four-storey office block in the Scots Baronial and Jacobean styles, with a curved frontage following the street line.

The building presents a complex and highly decorative facade. On the left stands a wide single-bay gabled entrance bay, followed by a five-bay block with gabletted dormers flanking the centre. At the core is a tall, slim four-stage balustraded tower with bartizans and a caphouse. To the right are two two-bay blocks with gabletted dormers flanking the centre, and on the outer right a crowstepped gabled bay with a two-storey oriel window. The exterior is faced in cream coursed ashlar, with coursed rubble to the rear.

The entrance bay to the left features a tall narrow advanced gabled bay with finials. The door is a two-leaf timber panelled design with a semicircular fanlight in a round-arched surround, the arch itself depressed and topped with a mask keystone. The pilasters are Doric with vermiculated banding. Above them, lion-masked consoles support the entablature with obelisks on pedestals. A decoratively consoled and corniced two-storey projection rises across the first and second floors, topped with a strapwork pediment and inscription. This projection contains three-light mullioned and transomed windows with decorative carving to the aprons. A corbel course steps across a single window with strapwork pediment at the third floor.

The five-bay block has a basement behind decorative cast-iron railings on a low ashlar coped wall. A moulded cornice runs along the ground floor, with spiral decoration to the mouldings. A chequer-set corbel course sits between the first and second floors, and a moulded cill course marks the fourth floor. The ground floor left side contains a two-leaf timber panelled door flanked by pedestals, with a plate glass fanlight above. First floor windows have roll-mouldings. The third floor windows are bracketed with cills, colonnettes and strapwork pediments. Finalled gablets to the dormerheads break the eaves at the fourth floor.

The central tower contains a modern timber panelled door with a two-light window above in a depressed-arched recess. A machicolated corbel course rises above this. The first and second floors feature three-light mullioned and transomed windows within a two-storey projection topped with a cornice and strapwork pediment. Two small corniced windows sit below a carved heraldic panel and balustrade. Corbelled turrets project to the north-east, south-east and south-west corners, the latter two featuring slated candle-snuffer roofs. A square caphouse occupies the north-west corner.

The two-bay blocks have three windows to the ground floor, stepped to the street line. Ground and first floor windows have roll-moulded depressed-arched openings. A continuous corbel course runs between these floors. A broad bracketed cornice marks the cill course to the second floor windows. Another continuous corbel course sits beneath the third floor window, which is marked with the initials DC in a decorative carved panel. Finalled gabletted dormers project from the attic storey.

The entrance bay to the right features a crowstepped gabled form. At ground level are paired timber panelled doors in roll-moulded depressed-arched surrounds with corbelling to either side. Above rises a corbelled two-storey pedimented oriel with a carved date panel marked 1866. Two windows and a small opening sit above within the gable.

The interior is remarkable. At the principal entrance, stairs mount through a series of round arches to a three-tier domed rotunda with decorative cast-iron balustrades. Office entrances open off circular balconies at each level. The dome features ribbed and diamond-pattern plasterwork. The principal ground floor room at No. 2 India Buildings, formerly used as a Registry Office, has panelled walls with a coffered and compartmented ceiling. Various other rooms retain good plasterwork.

Windows throughout are predominantly four-pane timber sash and case designs. The roof is covered in grey slates. Corniced ashlar chimney stacks have circular cans. Gablet-coped skews finish the roofline.