16,18 Marlborough Street, Edinburgh

16 and 18 Marlborough Street in Edinburgh are mid 19th century houses with later additions. They are two stories high and consist of a total of eight bays, featuring Jacobean detailing and originally symmetrical design. The houses are constructed from finely droved ashlar with broader droved ashlar dressings, while the side elevations are made of rubble. There is a base course, a cill course at the first floor, and an eaves course, along with slightly raised quoins on the advanced bays and at the corners.

The northwest (principal) elevation has consoled and corniced doorways at the outer bays and at the third and sixth bays, with panelled doors and 2-pane rectangular fanlights above. Each of the flanking bays has a single window at the first floor and at each floor. The penultimate bays are advanced and feature round-arched windows set in the gablehead, which includes a third storey.

The southeast (rear) elevation is not visible, but there are projections for Nos 16 and 22. The windows are 8-pane timber sash and case. The roof is covered with grey slate and includes some original flush skylights, along with a large bowed and slate-hung dormer window at No 18, which breaks the symmetry. The houses have moulded coping on the skews, block skewputts, and stone finials. The gable ends have coped skews with trefoil skewputts, and there are corniced ashlar stacks on the front pitch of each house and on the gableheads, with moulded octagonal cans (the gablehead stacks at No 22 are now lined with render).

The interior was not seen in 1994. The boundary walls are made of sandstone with coping, and there are pedestrian gateways at the outer left and right.