13 and 14 Simpson Loan, Former Jubilee Pavilion, Royal Infirmary, Lauriston Place, Edinburgh

13 and 14 Simpson Loan, Former Jubilee Pavilion, Royal Infirmary, Lauriston Place, Edinburgh

This complex of five tall, narrow four-storey and attic pavilions was built in two phases. Four parallel gabled blocks in Scots Baronial style were designed by David Bryce between 1872 and 1879. A fifth pavilion, the Jubilee Pavilion, was added to the west by Sydney Mitchell and Wilson in 1897, with later alterations and additions throughout. The pavilions are connected by corridors, including one linking to the former George Watson's Hospital (separately listed), though this connecting area is much obscured by later additions.

Bryce's four pavilions run north to south and are constructed in bull-faced cream sandstone from Hailes quarry with ashlar dressings. They feature conical-roofed corner turrets to the south. Each pavilion has distinctive crowstepped gables with triple octagonal chimney shafts at the gablehead and small louvred openings. The conical roofs are finished with fish-scale slates and feature finials and lucarnes. Moulded bands run between the first and second floors and above the fourth floor, with an eaves cornice completing the elevations.

The east and west elevations of Bryce's blocks are arranged as four gabled two-bay blocks with triple stacks at the gablehead and small windows in the gables. Single bays intervene between them. Windows are regularly positioned: stone-transomed windows with top hoppers serve the wards. Advanced gabled bays with gablehead stacks project to the north, with corners corbelled to square at the third floor.

The north elevations feature a crowstepped gable over the two centre bays of the three-storey north sides. Large shoulder-arched windows at the ends of wards and linking corridors have eight-pane glazing in casement windows, whilst stone-mullioned and -transomed windows light the stairs. Each pavilion has a large square-section ventilator with a conical roof. Graded grey slates cover the roofs, with stone skews and corniced gablehead stacks (some with circular cans). Painted cast-iron downpipes with some decorative hoppers run down the facades. Much window glazing has been replaced.

The Jubilee Pavilion, constructed in bull-faced red sandstone from Corsehill and Corncockle quarries, Dumfries, adopts an 'Old Flemish' style. Its south elevation features a narrow central bay with a crowstepped gable flanked by splayed polygonal corner towers now linked by modern glazed balconies to all floors. Ground floor buttresses support the structure. The second and third floors of the outer faces have stone-mullioned and -transomed bipartite windows, while the fourth floor has bipartite windows with segmental pediments. A stone-finialled curvilinear gablehead displays a decorative lantern or ventilator and a key-blocked circular window in the gable.

The west and east elevations present a ten-bay ward elevation with stone-transomed windows and top hoppers to the first, second and third floors. The centre two bays are crowstep-gabled and flanked by ogee-capped polygonal turrets, with segmental pediments to windows at the third floor and a key-blocked oval window in the gable.

An advanced block to the north has polygonal towers at re-entrant angles. The west elevation of this section has five bays: the outer bays are four-storey canted structures with stone-mullioned and -transomed windows to the first, second and third floors. A crowstepped gabled centre bay with a gablehead stack is flanked by this arrangement. The east elevation is partly obscured by later buildings but includes a crowstepped two-bay block with a stepped stack and an advanced tower to the centre with stop-chamfered corners, a mansard roof and a decorative lantern or ventilator. An advanced crowstepped bay to the right has a tripartite stone-mullioned and -transomed window, with bipartite windows to the left and two windows with segmental pediments breaking the eaves to the right in intervening bays.

The north elevation of the Jubilee Pavilion has a finialled ogee-roofed tower at the northeast corner with key-blocked circular voids to each face flanked by paired pilasters. Small tripartite windows occupy arch-headed recesses on each floor. Two crowstepped gabled blocks to the right have an intervening single bay. A doorway with an arched fanlight is set in a round-arched opening to the left of the left bay, with a round-arched opening to the right and a circular window at ground floor centre. Tall round-headed windows step up towards the right, lighting the stair at the first and second floors. A round-headed window to the centre at the third floor is flanked by a tall window to the left and a smaller window to the right. Stone-mullioned and -transomed tripartite windows occupy each floor in the centre bay, with a curved pediment to a small window breaking the eaves to the attic. The bay to the right is irregularly fenestrated with stone-mullioned and transomed windows at ground floor and modern windows at first floor, both flanked by a swept buttress, and small windows in the gable.

Throughout the pavilions, predominantly small-pane glazing is set in timber sash and case windows. The Jubilee Pavilion is covered with greenish slates, and only one corniced ashlar stack is visible, with no cans.