12, 14, 16 William Street, Edinburgh

12, 14, and 16 William Street in Edinburgh is a three-storey commercial terrace built between 1824 and 1825, likely designed by Robert Brown. The building features a plain classical style with early 19th century shop premises on the ground floor. There is a recessed curved end bay facing William Street SE Lane. The structure is made of smooth sandstone ashlar, which is painted at the ground floor, and coursed squared rubble with long and short ashlar quoins on the east elevation. A banded cill course runs along the first and second floors, topped by a corniced eaves course with a narrow blocking course above. The cornice and the banded cill course on the second storey are interrupted between numbers 10 and 12, continuing a course higher up. The original shop front configuration from the early 19th century has been largely retained, featuring a pilastered and corniced fascia on the left. The east elevation has later ashlar surrounds to the windows.

On the south (rear) elevation, the building is constructed of three storeys with 24 bays of roughly squared and coursed rubble, accented by tooled long and short quoin stones. The fenestration is irregular, with tooled rybats lintels and cills. The shop fronts vary, with some featuring plate glass and others having fixed 12-pane timber shop windows. The first and second floors predominantly have 12-pane timber sash and case windows. The building also includes ashlar skews, a corniced ashlar gable end, and ridge stacks with modern clay cans, along with cast-iron rainwater goods.