31 Chester Street, Edinburgh

23 Chester Street in Edinburgh is a B-listed building designed by John Lessels between 1862 and 1870. This three-storey structure features an attic and basement, forming a cohesive terrace of three-bay townhouses with main doors and common stair flats located behind. The basement area includes some vaulted cellars and retaining walls, with the exterior finished in sandstone ashlar, which is droved at the basement and channelled at the ground floor.

The entrance platts extend over the basements, and there is a banded base course along the bottom. A banded cill course is present at the first and second floors, with brackets supporting the second-floor course. The eaves are corniced, and the doorways are round arched. The first-floor openings are segmental arched, framed with architraves and cornices, featuring small rosettes in the cornice at alternating bays. The second-floor windows are moulded and architraved.

The first-floor windows have breakfronted cast-iron balconies, although the balcony at No. 29 is missing. The windows are fitted with plate glass in timber sash and case frames, and the doors are timber with six panels and plain fanlights. The roof has a double pitch in an M-section design, covered with grey slates, and features corniced ashlar ridge stacks with modern clay cans. The basement recess to the street is edged with ashlar coping stone and has cast-iron railings, along with cast-iron rainwater goods.