Scotsman Steps, North Bridge, Edinburgh

Scotsman Steps, North Bridge, Edinburgh

A massive Scots Renaissance block of tenements and shops designed by James Dunn and James Finlay between 1899 and 1902. The building housed the former printing works and offices of the Scotsman newspaper, now converted to the Scotsman Hotel.

The complex comprises seven 3-bay, 4-storey and attic blocks facing North Bridge; twin 3-bay gabled and turreted 7-storey and attic blocks to Market Street connected by a balustraded terrace leading from North Bridge level to an octagonal stair tower serving Market Street; two 3-bay, 4-storey and attic blocks curved to Cockburn Street with a bartizaned corner block to Fleshmarket Close; and an arcade running from North Bridge to Cockburn Street.

The building is constructed in coursed cream ashlar, with squared and snecked bull-faced sandstone and polished dressings above the ground floor on Cockburn Street. Windows are predominantly bipartite and tripartite, some with moulded architraves, blocked surrounds, chamfered stone mullions and transoms.

The North Bridge elevation features a modillioned eaves cornice and stone parapet. A red granite base course incorporates round-arched openings with channelled piers and carved transom panels to the ground floor of the former Scotsman office (three bays to the right), with blocked bipartites above. A stone-domed octagonal corner turret sits at the outer right. The three centre bays are flanked by engaged circular turrets with copper ogee roofs corbelled out at the 2nd floor. An arcade entrance to the ground floor has an allegorical figure in a niche above. Above rises an apex stack to a scrolled pediment elaborately enriched with heraldic carving. Diocletian windows light the 3rd floor of the three centre bays and the 2nd floor of the two flanking blocks. Canted windows with stone parapets above occupy alternate bays at the 1st floor of the three centre blocks. The corner block to the outer left has a round-arched entrance on a canted corner and an octagonal stone-domed tower with lantern above. A bracketed balcony projects at the 1st floor. Diocletian windows with carved transom panels below light two bays to the left, and an enriched pediment crowns the attic gable.

The High Street elevation to the south displays a tall corniced and blocked wallhead stack at the outer right, a 3-storey oriel with balustered balcony corbelled out to the centre, and an empty niche supported by putti in a scrolled gable above. Bracketed balconies project at the 2nd and 4th floors.

The Market Street elevation to the north presents a 3-bay steeply gabled block to the left with a segmental-pedimented aedicule containing sculpture to the gable, flanked by stone-domed octagonal turrets corbelled out at the 1st floor level. A carved panel displaying the Scotsman masthead, flanked by heraldic lions, is prominently placed. A balustraded, bracketed terrace leads to the western block. Round- and segmental-arched openings penetrate three floors below North Bridge level, that to the right at ground floor serving as the former vehicle entrance. A lower link building occupies the centre. A bowed bay at Market Street level connects to Scotsman Steps. The gabled block to the right features a 4-storey oriel corbelled out from decorative carving at the 3rd floor, a steep gable with sculpted panel and wallhead stack, and a 4-bay western return with a round-arched entrance to the terrace.

Scotsman Steps is an octagonal spiral stair tower in the Blois style with decorative wrought-iron grilles in depressed-arched openings and glazed tiles to the interior.

The Cockburn Street elevation to the west shows a corner block to the left with a copper-domed circular tourelle corbelled out at the 2nd floor to the corner of Fleshmarket Close and a crowstepped gable to Fleshmarket Close. Two 3-bay blocks to the right feature crowstepped gabled bays to the centre, that to the left containing a round-arched entrance to the arcade.

The arcade runs V-shaped from North Bridge to Cockburn Street, with round-arched entrances fitted with decorative iron grilles. The coffered ceiling displays turquoise and gold star-spangled mosaics. Original shop-fronts retain bowed plate glass flanked by timber Ionic colonnettes. A central ribbed dome with lantern and original stained glass completes the arcade.

Interior features include the entrance hall of the Scotsman Hotel with a reception area and stair fitted with carved timber panelling to the entrance hall and reception area featuring fluted Ionic pilasters. A compartmented 17th-century-style plasterwork ceiling adjoins grey-veined white marble with Ionic pilasters to the stair hall. An oriel window contains leaded and stained glass. The Scotsman Bar, the former Public Office of the Scotsman newspaper, is mahogany-panelled with a timber-bracketed gallery and decorative iron handrail. A 17th-century-style compartmented ceiling with ornate decorative plasterwork featuring fruit and flowers is supported on grey-veined white Sicilian marble piers with gilded capitals.

Windows are predominantly plate glass in timber sash and case frames, with 12-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows to Cockburn Street. Grey slate roofing covers the building. Some cast-iron down pipes feature decorative hoppers. Corniced ashlar stacks and some circular cans finish the roofline, with a large brick stack at the centre.