44-45 Water Street, Leith, Edinburgh

44-45 Water Street in Leith, Edinburgh, is a building designed by James Simpson in 1879, which includes parts from earlier structures. It consists of a range of four-storey and basement warehouses arranged in an L-shape. The exterior features cream sandstone with squared and snecked stugged rubble on the front and rear courtyard elevations, while the side elevations are made of coursed rubble. Notable architectural details include a base course, a cill band course at the second and fourth floors, a band eaves course, and rectangular ornamental iron ventilation grilles between the windows on all floors.

The northwest (front) elevation has six bays, with a shouldered-arched pend on the outer right that has chamfered reveals but is now blocked. There is a setted pend with cast-iron cart-tracks, and single windows above. The next bay features a doorway and a flanking window, which is a later alteration from 1886, with single windows above. The remaining bays also have single windows, while the basement windows are blocked.

On the southeast (rear) elevation, there is a blank rendered portion to the right, and to the left, there are four bays with shouldered-arched loading doors that have been bricked up. These doors break the eaves in a bargeboarded hoist gable with exposed rafters. The fifth bay on the outer left has had its weathervaned gable removed, and there are single windows in the remaining bays.

The northeast elevation features a recessed front range that is blank and has a mansard roof. The four-bay rear range projects with an M-gable and apex stacks, with single windows on the second and third floors, and an earlier wall up to the first floor level. There are also blocked windows on the return.

The building has 4-pane barred timber windows and a grey-green slate roof with metal flashings. The interior was not seen in 1992.