5 Straiton Place, Portobello, Edinburgh

This is a substantial, three-storey and attic tenement block, designed by Edward Calvert in 1896. It occupies a prominent corner position at 9-11 Straiton Place, Portobello, and includes a shop (currently an Amusement Arcade) fronting onto 51 Bath Street. The building is constructed from squared and snecked red sandstone, with polished ashlar sandstone dressings. A base course, cill course (to the first floor on the five bays to the outer right and outer left), and eaves course run around the building.

The principal (southwest) elevation is composed of 17 bays, grouped as 5-7-5, the outer groups being broadly similar in design. The central bay features a panelled door set within a broken semicircular pedimented doorpiece; a rectangular plate glass fanlight is positioned above the door. A blank wallhead stack with a decorative corbel is located above. Windows of varying designs are present on each floor of the flanking bays, and there is a crow-stepped gable to the wallhead stack in the attic space. Full-height canted windows are a prominent feature of the outer four bays of each group, projecting upwards and breaking the eaves with square gables, most featuring curvilinear details and finials. Ornamental aprons appear below the first and attic storey windows of these canted bays, while the second-floor windows have panelled aprons. The outer five-bay groups are almost mirrored in their design. The inner bays contain windows on each floor.

Adjacent bays feature pedimented and panelled doorpieces sheltering panelled doors, each with rectangular plate glass fanlights above, and bipartite windows above. A window and panelled door are located in the middle bay of each group, the right-hand group featuring a cast-iron panel in the upper part of the door as ventilation. Another panelled doorpiece is present. A corbelled bay, projecting from the first floor, breaks the eaves, with a finialled gable to the right group and a curvilinear gable with a finial to the left group. A Greek key pattern decorates the corbelling of the right-hand group, and a carved name plaque is positioned on the second-floor panel. An ornamental apron sits below the attic window, and the floor above holds bipartite windows. Bipartite windows are present on each floor of the penultimate bays, with a blinded window at ground level in the left-hand group. The corner of Straiton Place and Bath Street has a Greek key pattern on the eaves course of the full-height canted window, and ornamental carved eaves adorn the full-height canted window to the southeast, with segmental-arched windows in the attic space.

The northwest (Bath Street) elevation is three bays in width. The shop front at ground level includes panelled pilasters and a fascia. Windows are present on each floor of the central bay, while the bay to the right is blank, featuring a carved name and date tablet between the first and second floors. Advanced bipartite windows are located in the bay to the left, breaking the eaves with a pedimented and finialed window in the attic storey.

The windows are timber sash and case, with some alterations over time. The roof is a grey slate mansard roof, with fish-scale grey slates covering the canted corner windows. Advanced, panelled, and coped wallhead stacks are located between the 13th and 14th bays of the principal elevation. A wallhead stack is also present on the right side of the northwest elevation. Dormers are located above each bay, each with a gable or pediment.

The interior, inspected in 1994, comprises a tenement hallway with original chequered cream and honey-coloured ceramic tiles and a green dado.