15, 16, 17 Queensferry Street, Edinburgh

2 Alva Street in Edinburgh is a classical tenement and shop designed by J. Gillespie Graham in 1823 and executed by Robert Hutchinson. This prominent four-storey building features eleven bays arranged in a 6-1-4 pattern, with a curved and recessed single bay at the corner. The basement area includes some vaulted cellars and retaining walls to Alva Street. The exterior is constructed of sandstone ashlar, with a channelled finish at the ground floor and a droved finish at the basement. There are banded cill courses at the first, second, and third floors, and a corniced eaves course. The openings at the first and second floors are architraved and corniced.

The shop front at No. 15 Queensferry Street is advanced, featuring timber paneling and plate glass, sweeping around the corner and set over the basement with a dentilled fascia. The round-arched doorways have surrounds, some with radial glazing. The first floor has cast-iron bowed anthemion balconies.

The rear elevation is made of regular squared coursed rubble with tooled ashlar rybats and lintels above the openings, maintaining regular fenestration. The shop front has plate glass in timber surrounds, and the windows are timber sash and case, with 12 and 16 panes. The roof is covered with grey slates, and there are corniced ashlar wallheads and ridge stacks, along with modern clay cans and cast-iron rainwater goods.