109-115 High Street, Edinburgh

This is a five-story tenement block built in 1902 by Alexander W Macnaughtan, located on the High Street in Edinburgh. It is an example of Scots vernacular architecture with Arts and Crafts detailing, and its design is asymmetrical, stepped to reflect the slope of the land.

The front (principal) elevation features corniced, pilastraded timber shop fronts, with a two-story section to the outer left and left-center. Large, stepped gables rise above the main block, the left gable featuring a jerkin-headed shape with a hooded oculus and the right gable crowstepped with a chimney stack at the apex. A keyblocked, round-arched pend, gated and with a broken pediment and carved thistle, leads to Morrison's Close. Another, roll-moulded segmental-arched pend, also gated and with a heraldic panel in a decorative surround and an oculus above, connects to Bailie Fyfe's Close. The front of the shop to the right has a modern shop front with modern glazing; above it, a quadripartite window features recessed bays, fluted pilasters, and a triangular pediment. To the left is a public house front at ground level, with a tripartite window above and traces of a missing segmental pediment. A stone-mullioned, five-light window is positioned on the left gable at the fourth floor. Dormers with triangular and segmental heads break the eaves in the attic, with one dormer to the left having a timber dormerhead.

The rear (north) elevation incorporates a forestair (external staircase) with a lintel dated 1572. There is also a deck with plain iron railings and a second forestair leading to the upper levels on the right side. The east elevation is built of stugged sandstone and adjoins the buildings at 95-105 High Street from ground to the third floor. The west elevation is plain rendered and runs along the edge of an aerial gap site above the first and second floors.

The building is constructed from squared and snecked stugged sandstone, with polished dressings. The rear elevation incorporates yellow brick with red ashlar cills and lintels. The fenestration is predominantly single and bipartite, and irregular in placement. Many of the original sash windows remain, with six-pane upper sashes and plate glass lower sashes, though the ground-floor shop fronts are modern. The roof is pitched grey slate, with crowstepped skews, coped ends, and apex and ridge stacks. Cast-iron rainwater goods are present.

The interior, partially viewed in 2002, includes egg and dart moulded cornices in the shops at numbers 109 and 119. The first-floor room at the rear of the east elevation retains an original, plain chimneypiece and a cast-iron range.