55, 56, 57 Queen Street, Edinburgh

This is a pair of classical houses dating to around 1790, originally built as numbers 55 and 57 Queen Street, Edinburgh, and later combined with flats above. The buildings have undergone alterations, particularly in 1986-8. They are three storeys high with a basement and attic, and feature seven bays. The front is constructed of droved Craigleith sandstone ashlar with polished sandstone dressings, which have been cleaned with some replacement stones and cement patching. The ground floor has channelled rustication, and a cill course runs along the first floor. The windows are regularly spaced and have 12 panes to each sash. The central doorway leads to a common stair, featuring a moulded architrave and a six-pane fanlight. It is flanked by pilastered doorcases, each housing a tripartite doorway with a stepped back cornice and a semicircular fanlight; modern timber fanlights are present at numbers 55 and 57. Dormers with piend roofs extend from the attic, two larger ones on the left and two smaller ones on the right. The rear elevation is of coursed rubble, four storeys high with four bays and projecting closets rising to the first floor, and a pair of bowed bays at the centre. Tripartite windows are present on all floors of the outer bays.

Inside, the original common stair has been replaced with a concrete stair at the upper floors, and a lift has been installed in the centre-right of number 57. The original houses had mirrored layouts, featuring curving cantilevered central stairs. Number 55 retains decorative 19th-century cast-iron banisters with tray rests, while number 57 has simpler, round banisters. Former dining rooms have apsidal ends, panelled dados, and black slate chimneypieces, with No. 57 displaying incised anthemion motifs. Number 55’s rear left room features a veined orange marble chimneypiece and the rear right room has a chimneypiece with entwined dolphins. The rear left room of number 57 has a swagged timber chimneypiece with marble fillets, and the rear right room features a 19th-century marble chimneypiece. The former drawing room of number 55 boasts a compartmentalized 19th-century ceiling and a corresponding consoled marble chimneypiece, with a fanlight on the landing. Number 57 has been subdivided and incorporates a grey marble chimneypiece. The 2nd floor rooms have panelled dados, with the front rooms subdivided and featuring swagged friezes to the cornices. A 19th-century grey marble chimneypiece is found in the former E flat, and the former W flat has a sideboard recess and a swagged chimneypiece with Delft tiles. The rear left room has a painted stone chimneypiece with sepia tiled inserts depicting the Seasons. An open stair with turned timber banisters leads to the east garret, while the west garret is enclosed.

Cast-iron railings of 19th-century design are present at numbers 55 and 57, with spearhead detailing at number 57. A pair of cast-iron lamp standards, one at each doorway, complete the exterior.