100A Princes Street, Edinburgh

100A Princes Street in Edinburgh is a four-storey hotel built in 1879 by Robert Paterson, designed in a symmetrical Free Renaissance style. The building is constructed from polished cream sandstone ashlar, which has been cleaned. At the ground level, modern granite-faced shops flank a central entrance that features coupled fluted Corinthian columns and a balustraded parapet, with broad two-leaf panelled doors.

The upper floors are characterized by broad projecting outer bays framed by channelled pilasters. These bays contain canted windows on the first and second floors, and bipartite windows on the third floor. The balustraded parapets are interrupted by arched and pedimented wallhead attic dormers, along with garret oculi set in pavilion roofs adorned with elaborate cast-iron brattishing. The central bay features a pair of windows on each floor, with the first-floor windows linked by a scrolled broken pediment and a cartouche of Windsor Castle. The second-floor windows have consoled pediments, and the paired wallhead dormers are again linked by a broken pediment topped with a ball finial, along with a pair of garret oculi.

The building has timber sash and case plate glass windows, a roof covered in grey slates, and ashlar coped skews, with large corniced ashlar stacks at the gables and center.

Inside, the entrance hall is elaborate, featuring fluted Corinthian pilasters. There is a cantilevered dog-leg stair with timber barley twist banisters leading to the first floor, while the upper floors have cast-iron banisters. Although the rooms have been altered, they are plain and contrast with the richness of the entrance. One surviving feature is a grey marble chimneypiece located at the front on the first floor.