64 Queen Street, Edinburgh

A Grade A listed building dating from 1790, this three-storey terraced classical house with attic and basement comprises four bays and is constructed from droved Craigleith sandstone ashlar. The ground floor features channelled rustication with long and short quoins. A moulded cill course marks the first floor, which is articulated with moulded architraves corniced at first floor level, with a mutuled cornice above.

The broader right bay contains a stop-fluted pilastered doorpiece with a pilastered tripartite doorway. Above this is a cornice stepping back over a two-leaf panelled door and a large semi-circular fanlight with metal decorative glazing. The frieze is fluted with rosettes. The basement is droved; the roof carries a row of modern skylights. Small decorative cast-iron balconies adorn the first and second floor windows.

The rear elevation, rendered in coursed rubble, rises three storeys with an attic and comprises three bays. The right bay contains tripartite windows, whilst the centre bay features a round-headed window at ground level with altered windows to the upper floors. A large piend-roofed dormer extends to the right, with skylights to the left and a scattering of small cast-iron balconies.

A projecting single-storey basement wing extends to the east. Timber sash and case windows throughout comprise 15 panes, reducing to 12-pane at second floor level. Ashlar coped mutual skews and dressed stone mutual stacks are present; formerly two flanked the apex to the west but that to the rear has been completely removed. The roof is laid in grey slates.

The interior displays very fine decorative plasterwork across most surfaces, particularly on ceilings to all but two rooms on the ground and first floors. Marble chimneypieces complement the plasterwork throughout. Some 19th century enrichments and alterations address circulation.

At ground floor level, the entrance hall features a late 19th century Adam revival chimneypiece and grate, with walls displaying six oval reliefs of figures and a ceiling formed by a hexagon within a circle. The front room possesses plaster-panelled walls, dado rails, and corniced overdoors with figure tablets, alongside a fine carved white marble chimneypiece with quarter-reeded columns, rosettes, and a central tablet with urn (note that a fabulous brass register grate is missing, recorded in the National Monuments Record Scotland). The ceiling is an elaborate oval. The rear left room similarly features a pilastered tripartite window with a swagged frieze and a simple reeded white marble chimneypiece with veined orange marble slips; its ceiling is a circle containing four tableau panels. The rear right room displays a dado rail, a simple reeded grey marble chimneypiece, and a gib door to a dressing room at the centre rear; the ceiling is a concave square with four trophy panels. A walk-in safe is positioned within the central hall.

The stairhall contains a top-lit cantilevered stair with quarter landings rising to the second floor, framed by a Vitruvian scroll at second floor level. Square iron banisters with wrought-iron infills support an elaborately enriched square cupola with pendentives supporting a dome containing pitched skylights. The whole is further enriched with trophy and figure panels.

At first floor level, a suite of three drawing rooms feature dados and mid-19th century applied plaster panels with consoled corniced door surrounds, some copied in the early 19th century. The front left (principal) room contains an early 19th century black fossilised marble chimneypiece with Tuscan Doric columns, lion masks, and a reeded frieze. A single door opens to the front right room, with folding double doors connecting to the rear room; the ceiling is a panelled circle with end compartments containing figures and other decorative elements. The front right (small) room features a swagged frieze to a dentilled cornice and a simple reeded white marble chimneypiece, with a gib door to the right; the ceiling matches that of the ground floor rear right room. The large rear left room is divided longitudinally to the right of the doors by an inserted Ionic screen, its cornice en suite with the principal room. A simple moulded white marble chimneypiece with brown marble slips is present, whilst the ceiling is a relatively simple circular band. A pair of doors beyond the screen opens to the landing and rear right room, with a half window suggesting that the screen is a later insertion. The rear right room displays a simple beaded white marble chimneypiece with orange slips, a dado, an extra half window at the centre, and a plain ceiling, suggesting the room was subsequently enlarged with the ceiling perhaps destroyed.

At second floor level, corner rooms are positioned at each corner with altered central dressing rooms between at front and back. An elegant curving central stair with square iron banisters and mahogany handrail ascends to the attic. Corner rooms feature cornices, dados, and corniced chimneypieces; the rear right room is notable for a fine iron register grate with lion masks. The two left rooms are en suite. The attic contains numerous rooms, some with simple dados and cornices, including one to the rear with a large dormer and a 1930s chimneypiece.

The boundary is marked by cast-iron spearhead railings and a pair of cast-iron lamp standards en suite with numbers 65 to 67. The property was not originally provided with mews (see Kirkwood map); it now features a large car park deck to the rear. Some 19th century internal alterations have been undertaken.