Standard Life Assurance Company, 3, 5, 9, 11 George Street, Edinburgh

Standard Life Assurance Company, 3, 5, 9, 11 George Street, Edinburgh

This substantial office complex comprises five originally distinct blocks, now seamlessly unified internally, representing different phases of development between 1897 and 1978.

The original corner building for Standard Life Assurance was designed by J M Dick Peddie and George Washington Browne between 1897 and 1901. It is a three-storey, nine-bay neo-Palladian office block constructed in polished cream sandstone ashlar. The ground floor features channelled rustication above a smooth base course containing basement lights with grilles, with an entablature supporting a mutuled cornice. The upper floor windows have moulded architraves, corniced at the first floor and lugged at the second. A frieze with cherubs and garlands runs beneath a dentilled and modillioned cornice, with a balustraded parapet above.

The principal elevation on George Street is symmetrical, dominated by an engaged Corinthian tetrastyle portico at the centre, accommodated by a projecting ground floor with a corniced doorway. The portico columns are fluted on panelled bases, and the frieze is dated 1825. The pediment features a carved tympanum representing the Wise and Foolish Virgins, sculpted by Sir John Steell. A four-bay return elevation faces St Andrew's Square. The building retains timber sash and case windows with plate glass. The modern pitched roof is covered with grey slates.

Former No 13, designed by W Hamilton Beattie (George Beattie & Sons) in 1898, occupies a corner site fronting both St Andrew's and St George's Church. This is a four-storey building with an attic storey, executed in early Renaissance style with polished cream sandstone ashlar. The ground floor has round-headed windows beneath an entablature. The first floor features pilastered windows with a cill course. The second floor displays alternating windows with canted bays and segmental or triangular pediments; flat bays have balustraded aprons. The second and third floors are marked by giant order panelled corner pilasters. An entablature with a modillioned cornice runs below the roofline.

The three-bay George Street elevation features engaged granite Doric columns at ground level with a triglyph frieze above; a pediment crowns the former two-leaf panelled door to the right. The upper floors are distinguished by a canted centre bay. The three-bay attic storey, a diminutive version of the ground floor supported by lateral consoles, is surmounted by a massive pediment containing an oculus and three statues. The five-bay west elevation features canted inner bays on the upper floors and a gabled attic. The central section of three bays is pilastered with an entablature and parapet, balustraded at the centre; round-headed aedicule windows with alternating segmental and triangular pediments punctuate the wall. The building retains timber sash and case windows with plate glass, ashlar coped skews, and grey slate roofing. Ground floor windows have fluted pilasters.

Substantial additions and alterations were carried out by Michael Laird & Partners in three phases. Phase 1, completed in 1964, created the Myton Building to the rear in Thistle Street Lane, though visible from George Street. This five-storey block features curtain walls of alternating clear and green glass on the north and south elevations, with plant clearly expressed at the top.

Phase 2, completed in 1968 in collaboration with Robert Matthew, forms a five-storey, five-bay continuation of the St Andrews Square elevation. It is defined by vertical ashlar piers linked by horizontal windows, capped by a set-back steel fascia.

Phase 3, dating to 1975–1978, continues the George Street elevation with a link to former No 13. This five-storey, five-bay block reinterprets the Phase 2 design and incorporates a bronze frieze by Gerald Ogilvy Laing, which reinterprets the Wise and Foolish Virgins fable.

The interior of the original block has been substantially rebuilt whilst retaining the principal entrance, stair, and boardrooms. The Entrance Hall contains a straight flight of marble steps rising to the principal level, with a mirrored aedicule on axis at the upper level and a groin-vaulted ceiling. An adjoining arcaded hall in contrasting marble displays Ionic pilasters and a two-bay screen to the former Telling Room; the floor is laid in black and white marble, and a Baroque broken pediment surmounts the Entrance Hall.

The principal stairhall and landings feature fine timber panelling and pedimented doors. The cantilevered stair rises to the second floor with quarter landings, painted stone treads, and square timber balusters, lit by an elaborate glazed dome. At the first floor, a panelled Boardroom on the corner has a compartmented ceiling. Its chimneypiece is tiered, with acanthus scrolls supporting Ionic capitals and a frieze, an upper tier of Ionic columns supporting a stepped broken segmental pediment, marble slips, and a marble hearth. The room retains original furniture and a bust by Steell dated 1865, along with three wrought-iron chandeliers and brass radiator grilles in the windows. The Managing Director's room is similarly finished.