Children's Centre, 23 South Fort Street, Edinburgh

The Children's Centre at 23 South Fort Street in Edinburgh is a building from 1870, with an early 20th-century addition. It is a near-symmetrical, two-storey, three-bay school designed in a villa style, featuring a large hall at the rear and a later single-storey residential wing to the south.

The exterior is made of polished cream sandstone ashlar, with the addition being stugged and featuring polished dressings. The sides and rear are dry-dashed. Notable architectural details include a base course, long and short rusticated quoins, moulded eaves, and raised and blocked margins and mullions. The first-floor windows have lintels that align with the eaves.

On the west (front) elevation, the central bay of the original three-bay building is advanced and topped with a pediment. It has clasping pilasters that are channelled at the ground level on both floors. Each floor features a tripartite round-headed window, resembling an arcade, with keystones and a band course at the ground level. The flanking bays include a bipartite window on the left at ground level and a segmental-headed roll-moulded doorway with a keystone on the right, which has a deep-set door and a plate glass fanlight. The first floor has bipartite windows. To the right, there is a single-storey, three-bay addition with a piend roof, featuring a central door with a plate glass fanlight, a bipartite window to the left, and a slightly advanced bay to the right with a canted window. There is also a corniced doorway providing access to the rear of the property on the left.

The south elevation features a projecting single-storey range at ground level with a single window and a blank space above. At the rear, there is a plain two-storey, five-bay hall that has been divided, with a further single-storey range beyond.

The east (rear) elevation shows a blank gable of the hall, along with a single-storey range at ground level. The north elevation is blank on the right side, featuring a later covered walkway and entrance at ground level, with the hall on the left.

The windows are timber sash and case with plate glass, and the meeting rails align with the margin blocks. The roof is piended, covered with grey slates, and has a corniced ashlar stack.

The walls and railings include a low stugged ashlar front wall with saddleback coping and finialled cast-iron railings and gates. There is also a tall boundary wall on the sides and rear, featuring semi-circular coping.