45, 46, 47 Queen Street, Edinburgh

This is a pair of former main door houses, now subdivided into flats, dating from around 1790. Number 47 was restored in 1970 by Robert Hurd and Partners. The buildings are located at 45, 46, and 47 Queen Street, Edinburgh.

The houses are three storeys high with a basement and attic, originally seven bays wide. They are constructed from droved Craigleith sandstone ashlar, with long and short quoins and channelled rustication at ground level. The doorpieces are architraved with dentilled cornices and clasping pilasters. The doors are nine-panelled, with a modern fanlight to number 47, while the others have plate glass. A bowed slate-hung dormer sits on the left side, and a tripartite dormer on the right; additional skylights and a garret dormer are also present.

The rear elevation is of coursed rubble, four storeys high and four bays wide. The right bay features tripartite windows on the ground and third floors and Venetian windows on the first and second. The inner right bay has a full-height bow with a tripartite window on the third floor, alongside a projecting closet tower in the centre. The inner left bay is slightly advanced, and the left bay has tripartite windows on the ground and Venetian windows on the first and second floors, again with plate glass. A single-storey extension with a flat roof and dry-dashed finish has been added to number 45.

The windows are timber sash and case, with some casement and fixed sash windows to the second floor flat on the east side. They feature 12 panes where noted (to the common stair and number 47), while others have plate glass (16 panes in the left dormer). The roof is covered in grey slates.

The interior of number 45 includes a lobby with a suspended ceiling and a glazed panelled inner door. A curving cantilevered central stair has decorative cast-iron banisters (with one missing every three). An archway leads to a passage connecting to the rear extension, featuring a decorative timber doorpiece and glazed door dating from around 1900. The former dining room has a panelled dado, an arched recess for a sideboard, and a black slate chimneypiece (with a modern built-in shelf and plate glass door). A large room to the rear left has a tripartite window with fluted pilasters, a plain recess to the inner wall, a simple timber chimneypiece with a cornice, a gesso garland frieze, marble slips and a 19th-century register grate with tiled insets. The rear right room, originally bow-ended, has been altered to accommodate a passage and features a painted carved timber chimneypiece with urns, swags, and a central tablet. The rear extension has top lighting and bay windows to the west. On the first floor, a round-headed internal window with etched glass is located on the landing. The former drawing room has a panelled dado, a ceiling rose, a panel, and a fine white marble chimneypiece with fluted Ionic pilasters, rosettes and a central tablet. The rear rooms on this floor have simpler gesso chimneypieces.

Number 47 is connected to number 48 at all floors. It shares a similar plan to number 45, including an apsidal-ended former dining room and an L-shaped former drawing room, which now has new double doors matching those in number 48, a panelled dado, and a swagged frieze to the cornice. An internal window with Gothic glazing is present on the landing. A selection of fine carved timber gesso chimneypieces are also found within.

The flats have not been inspected.