Lord Reid Building, New Assembly Close, 142 High Street, Edinburgh

The Lord Reid Building, located at New Assembly Close, 142 High Street in Edinburgh, was designed by James Gillespie Graham between 1813 and 1814, incorporating earlier structures. This monumental, two-storey building with a basement features five bays and is designed in a Classical style. It is characterized by giant coupled Roman-Doric engaged columns that flank over-sailing steps leading to a large two-leaf timber door, which has a decorative fanlight above. The exterior is finished in polished ashlar and includes a band course at the basement level, a moulded cill course at the ground floor, a band-cill course at the first floor, a plain frieze, and a moulded cornice that advances at the columns. The narrow advanced outer bays have blind windows. The ground floor windows are adorned with moulded architraves and cornicing. Decorative wrought-iron overthrow lampholders flank the entrance, and arrow-head railings surround the drop to the basement on both sides. There is a segmental-arched doorway directly below at the basement level, and a reconstructed early 18th-century wing is located at the rear.

Inside, the building features partly-glazed vestibule doors at the main entrance. The large entrance hall has a broad, consoled segmental arch that leads to a domed stair-hall, which is enhanced by decorative wrought-iron banisters and a circular cupola. A marble chimney-piece with Roman-Doric columns is present in the ground floor front room. The windows are predominantly timber sash and case, with 12 and 9 panes. The roof is covered with Scottish slate, and the building has particularly broad brick and harled stacks with clay cans, along with cast-iron rainwater goods.