72, 74, 76 West Port, Edinburgh

This is a large, asymmetrical tenement block built in 1887 by David McArthy, comprising four storeys and an attic, with shops at ground floor level. The main block is constructed of squared and snecked stugged sandstone with red sandstone dressings, with some areas harled. A three-storey brick wing extends at a right angle to the rear, and a two-storey brick house stands free-standing to the rear.

The north (West Port) elevation features a continuous cornice above the shops, with cill courses at the first, second, and third floors. Chamfered reveals are visible on the windows. Shops have glazed, timber-panelled doors. The windows are tabbed, with bipartite windows in the outer right bay. A red sandstone dormer, dated 1887, has a square window and a ball-finialled decorative pediment. Crowstepped gables are present on the second and third bays from the right, featuring single windows to the right and bipartites to the left at each of the first three floors; a keyblocked circular window sits in the gable. Similarly, a crowstepped gable is found on the fourth bay from the right, with a timber-panelled door to a close (Cordiners' Land) set within a corniced, roll-moulded surround and a hoodmoulded carved panel above. Bipartite windows are positioned above at each of the first three floors, with a square window in the gable. A single window is located in the fourth bay from the left, alongside a wallhead stack corbelled out at the second floor, shouldered at the eaves to the right. A small, pedimented red sandstone dormer with a square window is also present. Another wallhead stack, broad and shouldered, corbels out at the second floor between the second and third bays from the left, and a carved panel is clasped within an aedicule with a scrolled pediment featuring a thistle motif. The two outer left bays have a crowstepped gable, with single windows to the right and bipartites to the left, and a keyblocked circular window in the gable.

The south (rear) elevation displays a modern, advanced harled stair tower with a pitched-roofed painted metal balcony tower. Concrete access decks are present, fitted with cast-iron brackets and railings, alongside modern pitched-roofed dormers with decorative metal frames. A later three-storey, six-bay wing adjoins to the southwest, built of red brick with yellow brick dressings. An open stair, with concrete steps and a cast-iron handrail, is located at the angle of the wing; white glazed tiles are also visible. Further concrete access decks with cast-iron brackets and railings are present, alongside timber panelled doors with two-pane fanlights, flanked by single windows. Three projecting blocks are found to the rear: a piend-roofed single bay block to the right, a piend-roofed stair tower to the centre, and a later polygonal block to the left.

A free-standing, piend-roofed two-storey brick house stands to the south, with a modern single-storey wing attached to the left. The original house has an oriel window to the centre at the first floor.

The majority of windows have eight panes, set in timber sash and case frames, although modern glazing is found in the rear block. Grey slates cover the roof, with corniced stacks and octagonal chimneys to the main block, and corniced brick stacks with circular cans to the rear block.

Garden walls and railings enclose a garden at the centre of the rear, with cast-iron railings fixed to retaining walls.