42, 44, 46 North Castle Street, Edinburgh

This is a pair of former classical houses, now flats, built between 1792 and 1794 on a corner site in Edinburgh. The buildings are three storeys high with a basement and attic, and originally comprised nine bays, with a double bow front. They were designed as a pair, but later subdivided. The exterior is polished cream sandstone ashlar, with V-jointed rustication at ground level, and cill courses at the first and second floors. An eaves cornice tops the building. Centrally, three arcaded doorpieces are framed by Roman Doric pilasters, each with a separate flight of steps leading to a door – the central door leads to a common stair, with a blind fanlight above it, while the flanking doors have radiating metal glazing and panelled doors. A pair of flagpoles are positioned to the front. The outer bays have been united to form full-height bows. There are piend-roofed dormers with rooflights, two on the north side and one on the south. The rear gable is of irregular coursed rubble and extends three bays along Young Street. The windows are 12-pane timber sash and case windows. The roof has ashlar coped skews, an ashlar stack to the south, and a corniced rendered stack to the north, covered with grey slates.

The interior of No. 42 was thoroughly refurbished in 1995. The entrance hall is flanked by shallow arched recesses, one of which leads to the former dining room, featuring a black slate chimneypiece and a Corinthian pilastered recess for a sideboard. The room has been opened through to a rear room. A cantilevered stone stair is centrally located with quarter landings, plain square iron banisters, and a scrolled frieze marking the first-floor level. A former short flight of steps from the first-floor landing gave access to No. 46. Gothic fanlights are present at the landing from the single bay northeast and rear northwest rooms. The former drawing room has a panelled dado and direct access to the rear room, though the white marble chimneypiece was stolen. No. 46 has been extended to the rear at all floors, linking with a block on Young Street. The stair has been extended through the former flat to the attic, with turned and block banisters, which may have been reused from the upper stair. A glazed screen is present in the entrance hall archway. Original features in No. 46 include black slate chimneypieces in the former dining and drawing rooms, with the latter featuring a swagged frieze, panelled dado, plaster panelled walls, and a filled-in recess to the inner wall. Nicely detailed offices are located to the rear on the first floor, and a boardroom, formerly the dining room, is situated on the second floor front, currently unseen. The flat in No. 44 (above No. 42) has a top-lit stair with plain square banisters. The front dining room features a pilastered sideboard recess with a swagged frieze, panelled dado, and a carved chimneypiece with fluted Corinthian pilasters and marble slips. The rear room has a tripartite window, panelled dado, carved chimneypiece with panelled pilasters and marble slips, and a further stair to the garret.

Cast-iron spearhead railings originally fronted the property, and a single lamp standard survives at No. 42.