New Register House, West Register Street, Edinburgh

New Register House, located on West Register Street in Edinburgh, was designed by Robert Matheson and constructed between 1856 and 1862. This building is a symmetrical, three-storey and basement, nine-bay Italianate palazzo made of polished cream sandstone ashlar. The ground floor features channelled rustication, with cill courses on the first and second floors and a bracketed eaves cornice. The building has channelled quoin strips, arcaded windows on the ground floor, and lugged architraved windows on the upper floors.

The south elevation, facing Gabriel's Road, has nine bays. The first-floor windows are adorned with alternating segmental and triangular pediments. There are two tiers of steps leading to a slightly advanced three-bay centerpiece, where channelled piers at the ground level separate keystoned arched openings. The central entrance features a two-leaf panelled door, flanked by paired Corinthian columns and a mutuled cornice on the first floor, with paired Roman Doric columns on the second floor.

The east and west elevations each have seven bays, with slightly advanced outer bays that include pedimented windows on the first floor. The center bays have corniced windows on the first floor, topped with a plain cornice.

The north elevation is a plain ten-bay facade with a four-bay centerpiece. The building features timber sash and case 12-pane windows, a stone slabbed piend and platform roof, and corniced ashlar stacks.

Inside, the layout is similar to that of Register House, featuring a domed circular central reading hall with five tiers of balconied cast-iron book stacks.

The boundary walls, gatepiers, gates, railings, and lamp standards include saddleback ashlar footings for the cast-iron railings. Decorative railings are present at the front, with a pair of corniced ashlar gatepiers flanking hollow fretted cast-iron gatepiers topped with crown finials. Additionally, a pair of cast-iron lamp standards with globe lights are positioned beside the steps.