Lodge, Royal Infirmary, Lauriston Place, Edinburgh

The lodge for the Royal Infirmary on Lauriston Place in Edinburgh was designed by John Lessels in 1857. This single-storey building with a basement features an Italianate style and has a piend roof. It is constructed from coursed lightly stugged sandstone with polished ashlar dressings and has ashlar strips at the corners. The windows have key-blocked round-headed surrounds with blocked jambs, and the deep eaves are adorned with plain bargeboarding.

On the north elevation facing Lauriston Place, there is a tripartite window set in an advanced gabled bay. The east elevation includes a timber panelled door in the right bay and a tripartite window in the advanced centre bay. The south elevation features a single window in the right bay and a bipartite window in the advanced piend-roofed left bay. The west elevation has two single windows. The windows are made of plate glass in timber sash and case frames, and the roof is covered with graded grey slates. A large corniced stack, made of bull-faced sandstone with ashlar long and short quoins, has circular cans. The building also has moulded cast-iron rainwater goods.

Surrounding the lodge are forecourt ramp walls, gatepiers, gates, boundary walls, railings, and lamp standards. The forecourt ramp has ashlar-coped coursed sandstone retaining walls. The gatepiers are panelled ashlar with corniced caps. Spear-headed cast-iron gates and railings lead to Lauriston Place and the Meadows, mounted on ashlar-coped boundary walls. The forecourt ramp features rinceau-patterned railings, and there are ashlar obelisks at intervals along Lauriston Place, echoing those found at George Heriot's. Ornate cast-iron lamp standards with garlands are set on scrolled legs, topped with more recent painted metal crowns, and mounted on ashlar plinths at the corners of the forecourt ramp.