Psychology Department, University Of Edinburgh, 7 George Square, Edinburgh

The Psychology Department, located at 7 George Square, Edinburgh, is a complex of former school buildings constructed in phases between 1890 and 1910, with an earlier wing dating to 1876. Architects involved were MacGibbon and Ross, Peter L B Henderson, and George Washington Brown. The building occupies a prominent position on the north side of George Square. It is predominantly two storeys high, with an attic and basement, and comprises 20 bays, exhibiting a French Renaissance style with mansard roofs. The facade is constructed of polished ashlar, featuring channelled pilastered angles, consoled ground-floor windows with linked cornices, and segmentally pedimented dormers.

The 1893 section follows a 17th-century Parisian ‘Hotel’ plan, with four bays to the west and three bays to the east, connected by a three-bay entrance that forms a glazed internal courtyard, enclosing a preceding L-shaped building of 1876. The central entrance features an arch with a keystoned head, consoled and double-broken segmental pediment, a shallower triangular pediment, and urns above. A five-bay extension of 1910 to the west replicates the style of its adjoining section. It includes round-arched dormer windows with finials and an advanced tripartite bay to the right, with channelled margins, a Venetian window to the attic, and a segmental pediment incorporating a dentilled cornice and carved tympanum crest. An addition of 1902 to the east represents a four-storey, three-bay Classical style, incorporating plain pilastered bays and a blind fourth floor with engaged columns and urn finials.

The rear elevation is plain, two-storey, and basement, with mansard roofs and irregular fenestration, constructed of coursed rubble with ashlar margins. A recessed courtyard area is located to the east, featuring multi-glazed window openings.

Plate glass is set within timber sash and case windows to the principal elevations, with a four-pane pattern to the rear. The roofs are flat lead coverings with slated mansards, corniced wall and ridge stacks, ashlar coped skews, and predominantly cast iron rainwater goods.

Interior features include surviving late Victorian details. A large, galleried main entrance hall (dating from the 1890 extension) now forms part of a U-shaped layout. A visible exposed timber trussed roof with ball finials on four slender iron columns, timber boarding, and rooflights is also present. The original main stair, from 1876, is now enclosed to the northwest of the internal courtyard and retains decorative cast iron banisters, coloured wall tiles, geometric floor tiles, a margined and coloured stair window, and a black slate fireplace to the former entrance hall. A second stair to the east displays plain white tiles and a decorative border. Timber panelling and some glazed classroom partitions are also incorporated within the building.