5 Chester Street, Edinburgh

3 Chester Street in Edinburgh is a building designed by John Lessels between 1862 and 1870. It is a three-storey structure with an attic and basements, forming part of an extensive astylar Renaissance terrace. The unified townhouse façade features main-door and common stair flats behind, with slightly advanced four-storey corner blocks. The western corner block has a later ashlar attic storey.

The basement area includes some vaulted cellars and retaining walls, and the exterior is made of sandstone ashlar, with droved ashlar at the basement and channelled ashlar at the ground floor. The entrance platts oversail the basements, and there is a banded base course between the basement and ground floor. The first and second floors have banded cill courses, while the eastern corner block features moulded cill courses and bracketed cills at the second floor. The attic has a moulded cill course, with fielded panels alternating with windows above. The eaves course is corniced and consoled.

The windows are architraved and corniced at the first floor, with the western corner block showcasing a stepped parapet with plain fielded panels. The ground floor has recessed round-arched surrounds, while the first floor features corniced and pedimented windows. The centre terrace has architraved windows at the first floor, which are segmentally arched with a small rosette to the cornice in alternate openings, and moulded architraved windows at the second floor. Cast-iron balconies adorn the façade.

The building has plate glass in timber sash and case windows, and timber six-panel doors in round-arched surrounds with plain fanlights. There are additional narrow sidelights on the western corner block. The roof is a double pitch M-section covered with grey slates, and there are corniced ashlar gable and ridge stacks with modern clay cans. Cast-iron railings edge the basement recess to the street, and cast-iron rainwater goods are also present.