96 Hanover Street, Edinburgh

96 Hanover Street is a classical tenement building constructed between 1784 and 1790, featuring 19th century shops at the ground level. It stands three stories high with a basement and attic, and has six bays on a corner site. The exterior is made of droved cream sandstone ashlar, which is partly painted, with polished dressings.

On the Hanover Street elevation, there is a four-bay block to the south with an architraved common stair door on the right. To the left, there is an adapted early 19th century two-bay shop with slender pilasters and a dentilled cornice. The shop on the right, dating from the later 19th century, has panelled pilasters and a consoled cornice, likely similar to the one on the left. A shop is located in the basement. The first floor features three left bays with architraved and corniced windows, while the right bay has paired windows. There is a single piend-roofed dormer above. The projecting two-bay block to the north contains two shops at ground level and has a consoled cornice. The upper floors have tripartite windows, and there is a further consoled cornice with a solid parapet and two large gabled wallhead tripartite dormers.

The Thistle Street elevation features a coursed rubble gable with three bays shifted to the left and an early 19th century pilastraded shopfront at the ground level.

The building has timber sash and case windows, with plate glass and four-pane designs. The roof is covered with grey slates, and there are ashlar coped skews and rendered stacks.

The interior was not seen in 1995. The property also features plain cast-iron railings with barley-twist designs on the stairs.