4, 4A Merchiston Park, Edinburgh

This building, located at 4 and 4A Merchiston Park in Edinburgh, dates from around 1860 and is a two-storey, three-bay asymmetrical villa featuring Jacobean details. It is constructed from cream sandstone, squared and snecked stugged rubble with ashlar dressings. The design includes a base course, a string course above the ground floor, and chamfered reveals.

The northeast (front) elevation showcases an advanced gabled central bay with rounded arrises at the ground floor that transition to a square shape at the first floor. It features a roll-moulded depressed-arch doorway with a boarded door that has decorative cast-iron hinges, along with a small panel displaying entwined letters above. There are small windows on the returns, and at the first floor, a shallow ashlar oriel supported by offset corbels features a pediment with carved strapwork and arrowslit windows on the returns. The gable is finished with finialled skewputts. To the right, a broad gabled bay includes a bipartite window at the ground floor, with a string course that steps over as a hoodmould and a small blank shield above the central light. There is a single window at the first floor and a narrow window in the gablehead. The recessed bay to the left has two single windows at the ground floor and a first-floor window that breaks the eaves in a gabled dormer head. A recessed single-storey side wing is located to the outer right.

The southeast elevation consists of two bays, with an advanced gabled bay to the right that has two wallhead stacks flanking the apex as kneelers. It features a large rubble-built modern forestair and screen wall providing access to a secondary entrance at the first floor, along with a small window in the gablehead. The gable bay to the left has similar stacks and an arrowslit window in the gablehead. There is also a stone-built gabled detached garage to the southeast.

On the northwest elevation, there is a flat-roofed side wing at the ground floor and a central shouldered wallhead stack that has been rebuilt.

The villa has timber sash and case windows, mostly with plate glass glazing, although some are four-pane windows. The roof is slate with lead flashings, and there are five wallhead stacks, three of which are decorative barleysugar cans. The skews are coped ashlar, and the skewputts are corbelled.

The interior was not seen in 1992. The property is enclosed by a tall rubble wall at the rear and sides with semi-circular coping, and a low wall at the front with flat coping, along with later gatepiers, a gate, and railings.