1-3 Polwarth Crescent, Edinburgh

1-3 Polwarth Crescent in Edinburgh is a four-storey curved corner tenement block, likely designed by John C. Hay and dated 1881. The building features an imposing tall ground floor with shops, constructed from sandstone and ashlar, and painted at the ground level. It has moulded cill courses at the first and third floors, along with moulded window margins and architraves at the first floor. A stone-bracketed eaves cornice adds to its architectural detail.

The first floor has a continuous balustrade at the cill level, and the shop fronts are tripartite, framed by long thin colonettes. The east elevation showcases a three-bay bowed corner design, with a central door featuring a rectangular fanlight framed by carved consoles. Above this, there is a blank curved wall with a datestone at the first floor level, topped by a small pediment decorated with a palmette pattern. A heraldic panel is located at the third floor, and there is a wallhead chimney stack, which is corniced with scrolled brackets (the left one is missing) and has octagonal cans. The outer bays feature full-height canted bays arranged in a 1,2,1 pattern, each with half-piended roofs.

On the southeast elevation facing Polwarth Gardens, there is an ornamental doorway with sidelights and a rectangular fanlight on the outer right, supported by a heavy lintel carried by four carved consoles. The outer left has a narrow shopfront with a door on the right, while the central shopfront is canted with a door to the left. Above, there are four bays, with the central right bay featuring three-storey canted windows and a half-piended roof, while the remaining bays have single windows.

The northeast elevation facing Polwarth Crescent includes a canted shopfront with a central entrance door, and three bays above with a central three-storey canted window and a pitched roof, along with single windows in the outer bays. The building primarily has plate glass sash and case windows, a Scottish slate roof with lead flashings, and mutual rendered chimney stacks. The interiors were not seen in 1992.