170-174 Great Junction Street, Leith, Edinburgh

This is a large, four-storey tenement block dating to 1911, designed by W.N. Thomson and situated on a corner plot in Leith, Edinburgh. The building exhibits eclectic Baroque detailing and features an imposing domed corner clock tower. The front is constructed of cream sandstone, polished as ashlar, while the rear and side elevations are harled.

The corner block’s eastern elevation is five bays wide, with a chamfered central bay framed by shallow corner pilasters featuring stylized carving. Ground floor shopfronts have been altered. A doorway is located in the chamfered corner, above which is an architraved bipartite window at the first floor, flanked by carved heraldic panels, seemingly representing the Leith Providence Co-operative Society (dated 1911). The three centre bays are slightly advanced at the second and third floors, supported by a bracketted corbel, with transomned bipartite windows at the second floor. Keystoned windows with shouldered architraves and garlanded aprons are situated at the third floor. A tall parapet features shaped crenellations, and a leaded, octagonal tower rises above, incorporating Ionic columns, alternating clock faces and blank cartouches, and a finialled, ogival textured dome. The outer bays feature segmental arched, cavetto-moulded keystoned giant order, with tripartite windows at the first, second (transomed and containing stained glass), and third floors. The corresponding parapet features bipartite arches and cartouche panels.

The southwest elevation, facing Great Junction Street, is ten bays wide, featuring panelled common stair doorways with dentilled cornices. Shopfronts are largely altered. Three-storey canted windows are located in the two central and outer bays, with single windows filling the remaining bays.

The northwest elevation, facing Taylor Gardens, mirrors the corner block but is recessed. Projecting, flat-roofed shopfronts are present, with the shop doorway to the left retaining its original two-leaf door with semi-circular lights and radial iron astragals. A segmental-arched pend and common stair doorway, both altered, are located to the outer left.

The rear (west) elevation is harled and has a complex roofscape with varying levels, containing a roof garden/drying green above the Great Junction Street shops.

Originally, the building had timber sash and case windows with small-pane upper sashes and two-pane lower sashes; these have been partially replaced with plate glass and modern glazing. The roof is slate with metal flashings, and tall, corniced transverse stacks are present. The interior includes tiled closes, with the remainder of the interior unseen during a 1993 inspection.