12 Sciennes Place, Edinburgh

This building at 2 Lord Russell Place, Summerhall Place in Edinburgh was constructed in 1834 and consists of six blocks of four-storey tenements designed in a classical style. The layout forms an L-shape, featuring a three-bay bow on the northern side (No 1) and a shop located on the ground floor within a curved corner bay on the southeastern side (No 6). The exterior is made of squared and snecked rubble, with coursed polished ashlar on the northern and eastern (entrance) elevations. Architectural details include base, lintel, and cill courses on the third floor, cornices, blocking courses, a parapet on the main northern elevation, and droved window margins.

The northern elevation has five bays, with the three central bays bowed. The first and third bays have blinded windows on each floor, while the remaining bays feature windows. The eastern (entrance) elevation has five bays for each block, except for No 2, which has seven bays. Notable features include raised lugged door surrounds on Nos 3 and 5. There is a shop window in the ground floor bay on the outer left of No 5, and a single recessed curved corner bay (No 6) on the outer left, which has later shop windows flanking the entrance. Above this shop, there is one window on each floor, with a tablet at the blocking course.

The southern elevation, facing Sciences Place, has seven bays with an entrance at the fifth bay and a single window above, as well as in the remaining bays. The western elevation features two bays that are advanced to the outer left, with a gushed re-entrant and single windows in all bays. An advanced five-bay block on the outer right has a central entrance and single windows in the remaining bays, along with single windows returning to the left.

The windows throughout include 12-pane sash and case styles, with some plate glass sash and case windows on the rear elevations and at the first-floor entrance of No 5. The building has a grey slate pitched roof with shouldered and corniced wallhead stacks on the southern and western sides, and corniced wallhead stacks on the northern and western sides. The remaining mutual stacks are either corniced or coped and rendered.

The interiors were not seen in 1990. There is a low coped rubble boundary wall to Sciennes, along with a similar mutual wall.