2 Cranston Street, Edinburgh

2 Cranston Street in Edinburgh is a Scots Baronial style building designed by Robert Paterson and Son, constructed between 1877 and 1878. This two-storey L-plan structure is composed of two stepped blocks that follow the slope of the land. It features crowstepped gables on the west, south, and north sides, and is built from squared and snecked bull-faced cream sandstone with polished ashlar margins. The building has stop-chamfered openings and long and short quoins, with predominantly stone mullioned and transomed windows. There is a cill course on the first floor and a string course on the ground floor that is crowstepped to the north.

The west elevation facing Cranston Street is symmetrical with three bays. It has a central gable that contains a tripartite stone window set within a pointed-arched recess, with a small oculus above. Flanking this are two triangular-pedimented gables that have blank shields, and bipartite windows.

The south elevation is asymmetrical with two bays. It features an iron-framed stair and deck access with railings leading to a recessed entrance bay on the elevated ground to the right. Above the shouldered doorway is a cinquefoil, and the left gable is advanced with a large tripartite window in a hoodmoulded pointed-arched recess. A carved shield above this window reads 'Canongate Christian Institute 1878'. There are two modern glazed timber doors at the lower ground level.

The north elevation is asymmetrical and consists of nine bays. The lower five-bay east block has an outer left two-bay gable, a central two-bay section with triangular-pedimented gablets, and a single-bay gable to the right. The four-bay west block features two triangular-pedimented gablets on the left and a two-bay gable on the right, along with a small hoodmoulded attic opening.

The east elevation is symmetrical with five bays, featuring transomed single windows.

The gatepiers on Cranston Street are square-section and capped with cornices, accompanied by later walls and railings. The building has late 20th-century timber-framed glazing throughout, grey slate pitched roofs, rebuilt coped apex stacks with circular clay cans, and a conical-roofed ridge vent. Additionally, there are cast-iron hoppers and downpipes.