16 Regent Terrace, Edinburgh

16 Regent Terrace is a townhouse built between 1826 and 1833, designed by William Playfair as part of a long terrace of 34 classical townhouses. The terrace is situated within Edinburgh and is characterised by its stepped design, following the natural slope of the road. Originally two storeys with an attic and basement, many of the townhouses have since been extended with an additional third storey. The terrace is punctuated by two larger pavilions of 18 bays each, with three-bay advanced sections at each end (encompassing numbers 11-16 and 23-28), and a 12-bay section to the western end (numbers 1-4).

The front elevation is constructed with droved ashlar for the basement, and polished ashlar for the upper floors. The rear elevation is predominantly of coursed squared rubble with dressed margins, and rendered to the third floor. Architectural detailing includes a base course, dividing bands between the basement and ground floor, and ground and first floors, an eaves cornice, and a blocking course. A continuous cast-iron trellis balcony with a Greek key border runs along the first floor. The doorpiece features fluted attached Greek Doric columns. The fenestration is regular, with architraved windows to both the ground and first floors and panelled aprons to the ground floor windows.

The southeast (principal) elevation shows three storeys and a basement. The basement level has a timber-panelled and glazed door with a three-light fanlight, alongside windows in the left and right bays. The ground floor has steps leading to a recessed area, accommodating a two-leaf timber-panelled and glazed door with a multi-paned letterbox fanlight.

The northwest (rear) elevation is a two-bay design.

The windows predominantly feature 12-pane glazing with 4-pane glazing on the second floor to the front. They are set within timber sash and case windows. The roof is an M-shape with a central valley, covered with graded grey slate, stone skews and skewputts. Corniced mutual ridge stacks rise to the east and west, incorporating octagonal flues with circular cans.

To the front, cast-iron railings with dog bars, spear-head finials and a distinctive circled border top the stone coping of the basement recess and platt. A wrought-iron lamp standard sits to the left of the platt. At the rear, random rubble walls with flat coping form the garden boundary, with squared rubble gatepiers that have chamfered bases and square caps. A cast-iron downpipe with an ornamental hopper is positioned to the right of the front elevation.

The interior of the ground floor includes a lobby with a geometric and encaustic tiled floor, a round-headed niche, a sail-vaulted ceiling with a saucer dome, good plasterwork, a timber and glazed pilastered screen, and a two-leaf door. The former dining room has good plasterwork, corniced and pilastered doorpieces, and a partly painted white marble chimneybreast with Ionic columns. A rear room features good plasterwork and a painted stone chimneybreast with Delft tiled cheeks. A stone cantilevered staircase has ornate cast-iron balusters.