33-41 Nicolson Street, Edinburgh

33-41 Nicolson Street in Edinburgh is a three-storey and attic building designed by Peter L Henderson in 1899, showcasing a Free Renaissance style with French influences. Originally a department store, it now functions as a shop on the ground floor since 2007. The building features a symmetrical five-bay façade with a distinctive steep roofline, constructed from polished ashlar, and includes a string course and a dentilled cornice.

The ground floor has a central canted recessed entrance with timber and glass swing doors, and some decorative iron mullions. The upper storeys are divided by narrow strip pilasters. The central three bays on the first storey feature segmental-arched window openings that are dentilled and key-stoned, with nook-shafts, flanked by smaller round-arched windows. The second storey has three-light windows with stone mullions, while the central gablet includes a semi-circular arched moulded window, flanked by cat-slide two-light dormers. The steep French pavilion roof is adorned with decorative iron brattishing.

The windows are predominantly plate glass, with timber fixed and casement styles, and sash and case windows in the dormers. The ground floor shop has plate glass windows, and the roof is covered with grey slates, featuring raised skews.

Inside, as observed in 2007, the building retains a good original room plan and layout. The ground floor boasts fine decorative plaster ceilings with geometric and floral patterns, alongside decorative dentilled cornicing. Fluted Corinthian-style columns are present on the ground floor, with simpler fluted columns on the upper floors. An open-well staircase features timber balusters and a banister, with some decorative timber moulding on the underside of the stair.