190, 192, 194 Easter Road, Edinburgh

This is a substantial, circa 1900, four-storey tenement building constructed in the Glasgow Style, situated on a corner site at 9, 11, 13, 15, and 17 Albion Road, Edinburgh. The building is characterised by polished ashlar frontages, with most shopfronts now painted. The east-facing gable is of coursed rubble. A prominent cornice and fascia adorn the shopfronts on the ground floor, with another cornice at the third floor and a band course near the eaves. Individual shopfronts are present in most bays, and the window openings at the upper floors have chamfered arrises.

A corner tower rises from the southwest corner, featuring a doorway within a chamfered recess, topped by a heavy scrolled keystone. Above this is a projecting, three-light, curved oriel window at the first and second floors, with margins providing detailing. The tower transitions to an octagonal shape above the third-floor cornice and culminates in an ogee roof with a substantial bracketed cornice.

The south elevation (Albion Road) features a shopfront in the three bays to the left. A raised and corbelled panel incorporates windows on the upper floors, surmounted by a pedimented dormer that breaks through the eaves. A semicircular pedimented dormer also breaks the eaves above the windows of the third bay from the left. The fourth bay has an entrance door framed by a bolection-moulded surround, a cornice above the lintel, and a round-arched fanlight with keystone detailing. Narrow windows with projecting cills are found on the upper floors above this bay, topped with a parapet and segmental pediment. A canted oriel window projects over the ground-floor shopfronts in the fifth bay, supported by large scrolled brackets. A stylised parapet runs along the eaves. The sixth bay is similar to the fourth, with a ground-floor shopfront featuring a wrought-iron gate at the entrance. The seventh bay has bipartite windows on the first and second floors and a further window breaking through the eaves at the third floor. A canted oriel mirrors the fifth bay in the eighth, while the ninth and tenth bays echo the third. The eleventh bay has narrow windows on each upper floor, with the twelfth bay mirroring the ninth, except for a pair of entrance doors at ground level that match the fourth bay. The outer right bay has a canted oriel window, similar to the fifth and eighth bays, and a bipartite window on the ground floor.

The west elevation (Easter Road) has five bays, with the corner tower shared with the south elevation. A shop occupies the ground floor in the left and central bays, and the upper floors feature margins and semicircular pediments on the first and second bays, alongside a narrow window in the second bay. A blank bay is located penultimate to the right, with a multi-flue chimney stack corbelled out at first floor level.

The building retains some timber sash and case windows with plate glass, and the original glazing bars are visible in some upper sashes. The main roof pitches and dormers are covered in grey slate. The corner tower has an ogee roof with concealed flashings and a weathervane at the apex. A piended roof with a lead finial is situated behind the parapet at bay 5. Cement rendering with lining is present, along with coped stacks on the north gable and west wallhead. Coped ashlar apex stacks are on the south ridge and east gable, featuring circular cans, and skew copes are present on the north and east gables.