183 Portobello High Street, Portobello, Edinburgh

Portobello Baptist Church, located at 185 Portobello High Street in Edinburgh, was designed by David Bryce and built between 1862 and 1868, with later alterations. This three-storey, five-bay building features a Franco-Flemish style and was originally used as a town hall but is now subdivided. The exterior is made of polished ashlar and includes a base course, a cornice above the fascia of the adjacent buildings at Nos 183-189, a cill course, and stop-chamfered arrises around lugged and tabbed openings, along with a cornice and a coped blocking course.

On the northeast elevation facing Portobello High Street, there are windows on each floor and in each bay. The doorways are located centrally, in the bay to the right of the center, and between the outer and penultimate bay to the left. The central doorway features a panelled door with an architraved doorpiece and a deep fanlight above, which is now covered with a painted board. The first and second floors of the central bay are advanced and corbelled, with tripartite windows on each floor and a carved plaque above. There are cast-iron brackets supporting a projecting gabled clock above. To the right of the center, there is a small-paned shopfront with a fascia above, and to the left of the center, there is a plate glass shop front.

The southwest elevation, which is the rear of the building, was not seen in 1994. The upper storeys feature 12-pane timber sash and case windows, while the tripartite windows have 8-pane timber sash and case windows. The roof is covered with grey slate and includes gabled louvered lucarnes topped with cast-iron finials. Gargoyles are positioned at the eaves level flanking the central bay and the outer left and right bays. There is a rendered and coped stack to the northwest and an ashlar coped stack to the southeast, along with cast-iron rainwater goods. The interior was not seen in 1994.