Chalmers Boarding House, Merchiston Castle School, Colinton Road, Edinburgh

Chalmers Boarding House, located at Merchiston Castle School on Colinton Road in Edinburgh, was designed by W J Walker Todd and completed in 1928. This two-storey, nine-bay building is arranged in a U-shape and showcases an early Scottish classical style, featuring an attic and a piended roof.

The outer bays are advanced, and the large ground-floor windows are set in recessed arches, supported by an entablature and flanked by pilasters with carved stonework in the tympanum. The central entrance has a pilastered doorway with scrolled carved stonework next to a window above. There are semi-octagonal stair towers on the side elevations. The building is harled with sandstone dressings, including a base course, a projecting cornice above the first floor, and an eaves course. The main elevations have lintels with projecting keystones, and some parts of the side and rear elevations feature a cill course. The fenestration is regular, with piend-roofed dormers in the attic.

On the principal elevation, three stone steps lead to the central door, which has a pilastered doorway with an entablature and a plain tablet above. Above this is an architraved window flanked by scrolls. The side elevations feature a three-sided canted bay in the center, with a basement door and staircase windows above. There is an oculus window on the first floor and small rectangular windows in the attic. The right and left sections have three bays each, while the slightly lower three-bay wing to the south has a central door with a tabbed architrave and a simple canopy, along with a blind architraved tablet above and flanking windows on both floors.

The rear elevation has a regularly fenestrated three-storey block in the center, with advanced outer bays that include timber doors at ground level and piend-roofed dormers in the attic. The windows throughout feature 12-pane glazing in timber sash and case designs, with a 9-pane circular window and 2 and 3-pane lights in the canted bays. The roof is covered with piended grey slate, complete with ridge tiles and lead flashings. The building has buff painted cast-iron rainwater goods with decorative metal hoppers and enclosed gutters across the attic windows, as well as some roof lights on the lower rear wing. The chimney stacks are harled with ashlar copes and short clay cans.

The interior is currently used as boarding accommodation for the school.