Trinity House, 99 Kirkgate, Leith, Edinburgh

Trinity House is a substantial classical house dating from 1816 to 1818, designed by Thomas Brown, and incorporating fabric from earlier. It is situated at 99 Kirkgate, Leith, Edinburgh. The building includes a vaulted basement dating back to the 16th century.

The main house is a symmetrical two-storey, three-bay structure with single-storey pavilions to the front and right. The exterior is built of cream sandstone, with polished ashlar to the ground floor, droved ashlar to the first floor and pavilions, and coursed rubble to the rear and sides. Key features include a base course, a rusticated ground floor, a band course above the ground floor, a moulded cill course at the first floor, architraved window surrounds with console brackets and pediments on the first floor, paired Ionic angle pilasters, an entablature, and a blocking course.

The front (east) elevation features a fluted Greek Doric porch with paired columns and piers, a dentilled cornice, and a balustraded parapet. The entrance is via a segmental-arched doorpiece with a panelled door and a radial astragaled fanlight. Above the main entrance is a large tripartite window with Ionic columnar mullions and a semicircular fanlight, flanked by paired Ionic columns supporting a frieze inscribed "REBUILT IN 1816, JOHN HAY Esq MASTER," with the arms of Trinity House above. Single windows are located in the outer bays at both ground and first floor levels. The single-storey pavilions to the right have a slightly advanced central bay with a blind round-arched niche, a solid parapet and small (blocked) windows flanked by blank ashlar panels, surmounted by a balustraded parapet.

The rear (west) elevation has a two-storey, five-sided stair projection with a half-piend roof, single window, and two tall windows flanking the outer bays.

The south elevation has a blank section, with a pavilion at ground floor that incorporates a stone dated 1555, an eaves band, and a short wallhead stack. The north elevation is similar, but without the 16th century stone.

The building has 12-pane timber sash and case windows. The roof is a black slate piend with lead flashings, and incorporates two wallhead stacks. Ornamental gutterheads are also present.

The interior includes a well-appointed vestibule and a broad tripartite inner door with marbled and gilded Doric columns and an elaborate fanlight. The master's room features a black marble fireplace with a cast-iron surround depicting unusual relief castings, reportedly from a previous building. A geometric imperial staircase contains a stained glass war memorial window (designed by J R Cook in 1933). The first floor is largely occupied by a Convening Room, with an elaborate deeply cut painted plaster ceiling, a nautical-themed frieze, murals to the corners, a black marble fireplace, and a fluted and carved surround for a Venetian window.

The property is enclosed by tall rubble boundary walls with flat ashlar coping, punctuated by a depressed-arched doorway to the south. The gatepiers are decorative cast-iron cage design, with decorative wrought-iron gates and simple wrought-iron railings. A reused pediment with an anchor inscription and a date of 1570 are incorporated into the southern gate.