181 Morrison Street, Edinburgh

This is a three-storey-over-basement tenement building dating from 1822, with a later shopfront added after 1877 to Morrison Street. The building occupies a corner site and has an L-shaped layout, with an 8-bay elevation to Grove Street, a 4-bay elevation to Morrison Street, and a curved, recessed 2-bay corner. The basement is built with droved sandstone ashlar; the first and second floors are faced with sandstone ashlar, with the two-bay corner polished at the upper levels. The ground floor of the Grove Street elevation has polished, V-jointed, rusticated sandstone ashlar, with polished sandstone ashlar dressings throughout. There are band courses between floors, a cill course at the first floor, an eaves cornice, and a blocking course. Ashlar steps and entrance platts project beyond the basement level.

The east (Grove Street) elevation is asymmetrical, grouped as four bays and then four bays, with the right-hand section slightly advanced. The left block features a modern timber-panelled door with a letterbox fanlight in the basement, along with windows to the right. The ground floor has modern masonry and an infill panel where a previous door once stood, while each remaining bay has a window. The right-hand section has a timber door with an oversailing plat, flanked by a small window at basement level. A modern part-glazed common stair door with a boarded fanlight is located on the ground floor, with windows to the remaining bays, and regular window fenestration to the upper floors.

The north (Morrison Street) elevation features an advanced, single-storey timber shopfront with a chamfered corner bay to the east. The shopfront has cement-rendered stall risers, bays framed by fluted pilasters, a recessed doorway with part-glazed carved doors, a stylised keystoned cornice, a dentil-moulded frieze, and a bracketed eaves cornice. Windows are present in all bays of the upper floors of the recessed main block, with a wallhead stack above the bay to the outer left.

The northeast (corner) elevation has a single-storey, rough-cast extension that partially obscures the basement and ground floor bays. A window is present in the remaining basement and ground floor bays and upper floor bays, with one bay blinded.

The west elevation was not visible in 2000.

The windows are predominantly timber sash and case, with glazing patterns of 12, 4, and 2 panes. The roof is covered in grey slate, with a curved profile over the corner, and coped skews. The ridge features coped and rendered stacks with cylindrical cans, and a corniced, shouldered ashlar stack to the north elevation. Cast-iron rainwater goods are present.

The interiors were not accessible in 2000.

Cast-iron fleur-de-lys railings, with plain flanking steps to the door, are mounted on an ashlar cope along the Grove Street elevation.