2-6 South St Andrew Street, Edinburgh

R W Forsyth, located at 26-30 Princes Street in Edinburgh, is a six-storey former department store designed by J J Burnet between 1906 and 1907, with later work by W Bay Burnet, Son & Dick from 1923 to 1925. This Free-style Renaissance building features a steel frame and is clad in polished cream sandstone ashlar. The ground floor has shop windows, while the first floor is marked by marble Ionic columns framed by a flat proscenium arch. The second floor showcases channelled rustication with a consoled band above, and the third and fourth floors are distinguished by giant Ionic columns, with windows running through both levels. A projecting cornice leads to a balustraded parapet at the eaves gallery of the fifth floor, which is adorned with term figures by W Birnie Rhind and W Reid Dick.

The corner tower includes Mannerist aedicules on the second floor and simpler aedicules on the fifth floor, topped by a balustraded parapet with urns. An octagonal cupola with a pyramidal roof is surmounted by a gilded openwork sphere designed by Gilbert Bayes.

The building has five bays facing Princes Street, with the western bay echoing the corner tower, and three bays on South St Andrews Street. The rear elevation is constructed of white glazed brick, featuring a flying link to 3 St Andrews Square, which is separately listed. The sandstone ashlar on the rear is dated 1925 and includes a broken pedimented aedicule.

Inside, the building is surprisingly intact despite its conversion to modern retail premises. It features alabaster Ionic columns at the ground floor, providing a backdrop to a magnificent scale and platt stair, which now includes a lift in the well. The interior has panelled square Forsyth's columns and trabeated ceilings throughout, with many original light fittings and details, particularly in the café on the fifth floor.