5 Grosvenor Street, Edinburgh

1, 3 Grosvenor Street is a group of tenements built in 1865 by Robert Matheson, exhibiting Italianate architectural style. The complex comprises three storeys and a basement, with corner pavilions that are four storeys high at the West Maitland Street end (Nos 1 and 3); Nos 23 and 25 form a corner with No 9 Lansdowne Crescent and are listed separately. A modern attic has been added to the central block.

The buildings are constructed from polished sandstone ashlar, with a droved finish at the basement level. A prominent base course, cill course to the first floor, and dentilled cornices to the first-floor windows are notable features. Bracketed block cills accentuate the second-floor windows, while a panelled eaves course incorporates fluted brackets to the cornice and a blocking course above. The doorpieces feature consoled, dentilled cornices and panelled pilasters with a circular motif, complemented by moulded margins.

The principal (southwest) elevation presents an advanced six-bay corner block (Nos 23-25) forming the corner with 9 Lansdowne Crescent. The ground floor features ashlar steps to the right, with a former door converted into a window. Regular fenestration is evident on all floors, with a blocked bay to the left on the second floor. The corner block to the right (Nos 1 and 3) is advanced five bays, boasting a recessed, bowed corner bay. Steps lead down to the basement door and a passage door, while doorpieces grace the left-most and penultimate bays on the ground floor. The left-most door is a six-panel timber door with a rectangular fanlight; a former doorway to the right is now a window.

The side elevation (to West Maitland Street) exhibits an advanced four-bay block with a recessed, bowed corner bay. The ground floor has been altered with a modern restaurant facade, featuring glazed entrance doors, metal-framed windows, and a rendered section under a metal canopy. The upper floors maintain regular fenestration. The first and second floor windows on both elevations are treated as part of the main block, with a cill course and margins to the windows. Tripartite windows characterize the upper floors, particularly the corner bay.

A recessed 28-bay block is interspersed with nine three-bay sections, and an additional single bay to the outer left. Basement doors are centrally located in each three-bay section, with a window and steps to the right. Bays to the left of the centre are sometimes infilled with windows returning beneath an oversailing platt. Doorpieces are positioned at the penultimate bay to the left and every third bay thereafter, featuring a variety of panelled timber and part-glazed timber doors, some now converted into windows. A modern hotel entrance canopy is situated in the twelfth bay from the right. Regular fenestration is seen throughout the ground and upper floors, topped by a continuous slate-hung attic.

The building has four-pane and two-pane timber sash and case windows. The end pavilions are covered with grey slate, piended roofs; the attic roof is obscured. Regularly positioned coped sandstone ashlar stacks are present, although the cans have been removed, and cast-iron rainwater goods are in place. Fleur-de-lys iron railings, set in painted ashlar coping, line the street and entrance platts.