Stable Block, Officers' Mess, Redford Cavalry Barracks, Colinton Road, Edinburgh

This is an officers' mess, built in 1914 and designed by Harry B. Measures, as part of the Redford Cavalry Barracks on Colinton Road, Edinburgh. It is a three-storey, 29-bay building with a wide, asymmetrical butterfly plan, accompanied by four associated stable blocks to the south.

The officers’ mess is constructed of dark, coursed rock-faced rubble with pale ashlar dressings, with channelled ashlar to the ground floor. It features a base course, horizontal bands on all floors, and an eaves course. Windows have projecting cills. The west-facing principal elevation includes an advanced, central, Dutch gabled entrance bay. A segmental arch frames a central, half-glazed timber panelled entrance door with a fanlight and flanking windows. The arch is flanked by massive decorative piers topped with finialled copper ball caps behind small scrolled pediments, bearing inscriptions that read 'GvR' and '1914' within decorative wreaths. Round re-entrant angle turrets top the building and are each capped with octagonal lanterns featuring round-arched window openings and ogee-roofed, finialled copper domes. At ground level, the turrets have half-glazed timber panelled doors with fanlights, set within segmental arches with prominent scrolled keystones. Canted window bays with six panes sit between the central entrance bay and the turrets. The upper floors feature predominantly timber sash and case windows with 12 panes per window, while the ground floor has timber casement windows with a 6-over-4-pane design. The roof is covered in grey graded slates with raised skews, and the chimney stacks have deep cornices.

Internally, the public rooms are on the ground floor, with residential accommodation above. The entrance hall is octagonal, with a coved ceiling and an octagonal lantern. The dining room and drawing room boast timber chimney pieces with central panels inscribed '19 GvR 14'. Additional public rooms have timber fire surrounds, and curved timber staircases are located within the turrets. Decorative cornicing is present in some rooms and timber and part-glazed doors are fitted throughout.

The four stable blocks to the south are also constructed of dark, rock-faced rubble with pale ashlar dressings. All are gabled, and blocks 6–8 feature haylofts, drop-platforms, hoists, round-arched entrances, and irregular window arrangements. They have boarded timber stable doors and a Diocletian window at one gable end. Building 5 is smaller than the others, with a row of high windows and boarded timber doors, while building 8 contains a former cell at its east end. The stable blocks have grey slates, and their windows are mainly timber with a small-paned glazing pattern.