Brown's Bookshop, 57-61 George Street, Edinburgh

Brown's Bookshop, located at 57-61 George Street in Edinburgh, dates from around 1775 and has undergone various additions and alterations. This is a three-storey and attic irregular eight-bay classical tenement with shops at the ground level. It is constructed of droved cream sandstone ashlar, which has been painted and rendered on the west side, featuring polished dressings. The building has channelled quoin strips at both ends and the center.

The eastern side has a modern corniced three-bay shopfront, with a central door framed by slender columns topped with book capitals, along with a fine earlier clock. There is a common stair door at No 59, located in the center right bay, which has an architrave and cornice. To the west, there are two matching later 19th-century shops, each with a mutuled cornice. The roof features a variety of four early bowed and later canted slate-hung piend-roofed dormers.

At the rear, there are two warehouses facing the lane. The eastern warehouse is a four-storey, four-bay structure made of coursed rubble, while the western warehouse is a four-storey, seven-bay building, also of coursed rubble, with droved ashlar at the ground level and a later garage addition.

The windows are timber sash and case, with plate glass and six-pane windows on the east side, and twelve-pane windows on the west side. The western side has an ashlar coped skew with a rendered stack, while the eastern side has a lead coped skew with the stack removed. There are stone stacks at the center, and the roof is covered with grey slates.

Inside, No 57 extends to the west at the rear ground level and across the entire first floor, featuring consoled cornices on the first floor, possibly designed by Burn. There is a top-lit saloon at the rear. The shop at No 61 includes earlier Ionic columns.