Royal Bank Of Scotland, 29-31 North Bridge, Edinburgh

The Royal Bank of Scotland, located at 29-31 North Bridge in Edinburgh, is a four-storey building with an attic, designed in the free Scots Renaissance style by architects Arthur George Sydney Mitchell and George Wilson in 1898. The structure features five bays facing High Street and two bays on North Bridge, with three corner turret bays topped with copper ogee roofs and tall finials.

Notable architectural elements include canted mullioned and transomed oriel windows on the first floor, giant recessed keyblocked arches on the second floor that are adorned with grotesque animal heads, and paired segmental-arched windows on the third floor. The building has projecting, bracketed, and crenellated parapets. The corner entrance bay is stop-chamfered and includes a two-leaf timber panelled door with a border-glazed fanlight, a blank scrolled cartouche in the chamfer, and carved panels along the frieze. The exterior is primarily finished in polished cream coursed ashlar, with pink granite facing at the ground level and around the corner entrance bay. Additional features include a base course and string courses at each floor, with bull-faced red ashlar at the rear, polished margins, and white glazed brick facing Carrubber's Close.

On the south elevation facing High Street, there is a two-bay basement level to the left, with rectangular triple key-blocked ground bays that serve as mezzanine shop fronts, framed by pink granite surrounds. A keyblocked carriage arch leads to Carrubber's Close on the outer right. The first floor has carved masks between the bays at the cill course, blank carved cartouches above the first-floor bays, and thistles carved at the base of the principal turret. The dormers are aediculed with triangular-pedimented dormerheads that feature broken-segmental pediments.

The west elevation facing North Bridge mirrors the north elevation but lacks dormers. It includes an aediculed stack and a segmental pediment that is broken by a pinnacle projecting beyond the stack. The north elevation has advancing stepped bays from the outer left, while the east elevation is plain and rendered, facing an aerial gap site.

The ground floor has modern glazed shop fronts, while some original 24-pane timber casements remain. The first and second floors have modern metal-framed and uPVC casements, while the third floor retains timber sash and case windows, with 12-pane dormer and turret glazing that appears original. The roof is covered in grey slate with corniced end stacks, a large corniced apex stack, and a large corniced stack at the rear, which has no cans. Decorative cast iron rainwater goods are also present.

The interior has been modern refurbished.