18, 19, 20 Queen Street, Edinburgh

18, 19, and 20 Queen Street in Edinburgh is a classical terraced block built around 1785. It features three storeys, a basement, and an attic, with seven bays. The building is constructed from Craigleith ashlar and has V-jointed rustication at the ground level. Above this, there is a polished band at the first floor with a moulded cill course and droved stonework above. The main entrance has steps leading to doorpieces with moulded architraves, a frieze tablet, and a cornice. The tenement door is flanked by a three-pane letterbox fanlight below a blind rectangular fanlight, which is painted as No 20. All doors are flush-panelled, with a plate glass fanlight for No 19 and a timber sunburst fanlight for No 20. The roof features slate-hung dormers, including a single piended dormer on the left and two elegant bowed dormers on the right, with bowed glazing, and a tripartite window at the far right.

The windows are timber sash and case, with plate glass in the three left bays and 12-pane windows in the four right bays. The building is topped with grey slates and has dressed sandstone mutual stacks, which are very tall on the east side, and ashlar-coped mutual skews.

Inside No 18, there is an archway from the hall leading to a central horseshoe stair with plain iron banisters. The dining room features a panelled dado and a fine gesso chimneypiece (stripped) with fluted pilasters and a later cornice. An unusually placed sideboard recess is on the inner side wall. The first floor has a tray rest, and the drawing room includes a panelled dado, a simple acanthus cornice, and a fine gesso chimneypiece with fluted Corinthian pilasters and a frieze decorated with urns and a central tableau.

No 20 is similar to No 18 but has a later glazed screen in the hall with a simple bracketed cornice. Its dining room also has a panelled dado and a simple acanthus cornice, along with a swagged gesso chimneypiece that does not have a recess. There is a room at the rear right with an apsidal-ended inner wall and a grained gesso chimneypiece. The drawing room features a panelled dado, a simple cornice, and a later chimneypiece.

The flats in No 19 were not seen during the inspection in 1994.