139-140 Princes Street, Edinburgh

139-140 Princes Street in Edinburgh is a building dating from around 1790, which was adapted for use as shops around 1840. It features a surviving three-storey and attic, five-bay section of a former tenement. The exterior is made of droved ashlar sandstone with polished dressings. To the left, there is a slightly set back common stair bay that has an architraved doorpiece with a pulvinated frieze and pediment, while a strip of V-jointed rustication remains to the right. At ground level, there is a small section of rustication, and a pair of built-out tripartite shops to the right, which have a cornice and blocking course. The shop on the right has been drastically altered, while the one on the left is in good order, featuring a mutulated cornice and tall, two-leaf panelled doors. The building also has a pair of piend-roofed tripartite dormers and two flagpoles.

The rear elevation facing Hope Street Lane has three bays and is constructed of dressed rubble. It includes an arched door and stair windows at the centre, with large tripartite windows flanking the door at ground level; the window for No. 139 has wrought-iron grilles bearing the initials W & S.

The windows throughout are timber sash and case, with plate glass and a twelve-pane design for the stair. The building has ashlar coped skews, rebuilt stone stacks, and is covered with grey slates.

Inside, both shops have nearly identical plaster enrichments and barrel-vaulted saloons at the rear. The upper floors were rebuilt following a fire in 1993.