40, 41, 42 Queen Street, Edinburgh

40, 41, and 42 Queen Street in Edinburgh is a classical tenement building dating from around 1785. It stands three stories high with a basement and attic, featuring seven bays and two main door houses flanking a central common stair. The exterior is constructed from droved Craigleith sandstone ashlar, with coursed stone used for the basement. There are separate steps leading to the doors at the center; the doors for Nos 40 and 41 are architraved and corniced, with flush-panelled doors (the door for No 41 has been altered), while No 42 has a tripartite and pilastered entrance with a panelled door. The fanlight above No 40 has six panes, No 41 has three panes, and No 42 features plate glass. The building has two different bipartite dormers and a multitude of rooflights.

The basement at No 40 (40a) has a flush-panelled door, a five-pane fanlight, and a single window to the left, with access to a common basement door. At No 42, a porch has been created for 42a under the stair, with two windows to the right. The rear elevation is a coursed rubble construction, four stories high and irregular with four bays, cut back at the corner of No 40. To the far left, there is a projecting closet tower at the first floor and a tripartite window at the second floor.

The building features 12-pane timber sash and case windows, with plate glass in the upper E flat. There are substantial dressed stone mutual stacks and a roof covered with grey slates.

Inside, No 41 has a turnpike tenement stair located at the front of the building. No 40 features an archway in the hall that has been filled with a modern glazed screen, and a straight flighted stair on axis with a round-headed window that continues to the basement. The ground floor has two rooms that have been combined, with the chimneypieces removed. On the first floor, there is a Drawing Room with a panelled dado, a ceiling enriched with a geometric display of husks, a modern coved cornice, and a plain 19th-century chimneypiece with a cast-iron register grate. No 42 includes a pilastered basket arch in the hall and a central curved cantilevered stair with plain square banisters positioned behind the tenement stair. The Dining Room features a pilastered sideboard recess, a dado, and a timber chimneypiece (not entered in 1995).

The property is also adorned with cast-iron spearhead railings, which are enriched at the steps of No 40.