16-18 Brunton Place, Edinburgh

This is a long, classical tenement building located at 16-18 Brunton Place, Edinburgh. Designed by John Chesser and built by Laurie and Scott between 1883 and 1888, it comprises a four-storey range with a common stair and individual main door flats. The building faces Brunton Place with a 16-bay central section (14 bays at ground floor level) flanked by advanced, two-storey pavilions to the left (7 bays, 6 at ground floor) and right (8 bays, 7 at ground floor). A curved corner leads to the 5-bay Brunton Terrace elevation.

The facade is constructed of polished ashlar, with a rear elevation of coursed rubble and dressed margins. Architectural detailing includes a prominent base course, a dividing band between the ground and first floors, moulded cill courses, a modillioned cornice (on the Brunton Place elevation only), and an eaves cornice. Most windows have regular placement, with architraves to the ground floor of the Brunton Terrace elevation, and to the first, second, and third floors elsewhere. Aprons are present on the windows of the first floor.

The principal (south) elevation features timber-panelled doors with letterbox fanlights, set within doorpieces with engaged fluted Greek Doric columns and pediments. These are grouped with narrow windows, some featuring extended cills, alternating with main door flat entrances, also framed by Greek Doric pilasters and with letterbox fanlights.

The western (Brunton Terrace) elevation includes bipartite windows in the outer left bay. An ornate canted bay with stop-chamfered mullions is central to the elevation. A timber-panelled door with a rectangular fanlight is located between the first and second bays from the left on the ground floor. A raised panel bearing the date 1886 is present on the far right of the first floor, while a blank raised panel is on the second floor.

The eastern side elevation is a single bay and built of snecked squared rubble with tooled margins and long and short quoins.

The building has plate glass in timber sash and case windows. The roof is half-pitched to the front and side, with a series of parallel piend-ended roofs to the rear. These are covered with graded grey slates, and feature stone skews and skewputts. Numerous chimneys are present, predominantly of ashlar construction, with some rendered stacks and a gablehead stack.