5, 5A Union Street, Edinburgh

5 and 5A Union Street is a classical tenement block built in the 19th century, featuring four storeys and a basement with a symmetrical five-bay façade facing Union Street. The ground floor is finished with smooth V-jointed rustication, while the upper floors are constructed of droved ashlar, with the basement featuring painted polished ashlar and the rear made of squared snecked rubble with droved margins. There are dividing bands between the basement and ground floor, as well as between the ground and first floors. A cill course is present at the first floor, and a main cornice separates the second and third floors. The third floor includes a continuous cast iron balconnette, and the building is topped with a mutuled eaves cornice and a blocking course. The windows are regularly spaced.

On the principal elevation, the central bay features steps and a platt that leads to a timber-panelled door with a batwing design letterbox fanlight. There are steps on either side of the entrance platt that lead down to the basement, where the basement window on the outer right has been altered to create a doorway with a modern two-leaf glazed timber door.

The rear elevation consists of four bays, with a canted section on the left and a single dormer on the roof.

The property includes railings at the edge of the basement recess and steps, with stone copes (edging the basement only) topped by spear-head finialled cast iron railings. A boundary wall at the rear is made of random rubble with a flat stone coping.

Most of the windows feature 12-pane glazing in timber sash and case, although the basement window to the right of the platt has modern glazing. The dormer has a timber fascia and grey slate haffits with a piend roof. The pitched roof is covered with graded grey slates and features stone skews. There are corniced squared rubble gablehead stacks on the left and a mutual ridge stack on the right, both with droved ashlar dressings and circular cans.