2, 4 William Street, Edinburgh

4 Stafford Street in Edinburgh is a terrace of classical townhouses, likely designed by Robert Brown around 1819 to 1824. The terrace features two-storey basements and attics, with three bays for each townhouse, and includes a prominent three-storey corner block that has a breakfronted pedimented bay at the center. There are various later additions, including shopfronts and porches, as well as dormers added to the attic.

The terrace has a four-bay return to William Street, which includes blind openings on the second-to-last corner bay, and a small late 19th-century shopfront on the far right. The buildings are constructed of sandstone ashlar, with channelled ashlar on the ground floor. Architectural details include a base course, a band course, and a banded cill course at the first floor, along with a corniced eaves course. Notable dormers include a rectangular one at No. 12 and a bow-fronted dormer with slate-hung cheeks at No. 16. Nos. 8 and 16 feature pilastered and corniced details, while No. 12 has a deep round-arched timber porch.

The windows predominantly consist of plate glass in timber sash and case frames, with some 12-pane windows on the right. The ground floor shopfronts also use plate glass. The buildings have sandstone skews and grey slate roofs, with a corniced ashlar parapet and gable end stacks, along with a pediment apex stack on the corner block, and modern clay cans. Additionally, there are cast-iron railings bordering the basement recesses of Nos. 8 to 16, along with cast-iron rainwater goods.