5 Annandale Street, Edinburgh

5 Annandale Street in Edinburgh is a classical triple tenement block designed by Robert Brown in 1825. The building features a symmetrical nine-bay, three-storey elevation with a basement and attic facing Annandale Street. The ground floor has smooth V-jointed rustication, while the upper floors are finished in polished ashlar, with droved ashlar on the basement and coursed squared rubble at the rear. There are dividing bands between the basement and ground floor, between the ground and first floor, and cill bands at the first and second floors. A band course and main cornice separate the second and attic floors, with an additional cill band at the attic floor, eaves cornice, and blocking course.

The principal elevation has a timber-panelled door at the centre bay, featuring a multi-pane glazed letterbox fanlight and framed by a doorpiece with fluted Greek Doric columns and an entablature. The third and seventh bays also have timber panelled doors in round-arched openings, with sunk-panelled painted stone doorpieces and segmental fanlights that have a radiating glazing pattern. Each doorway is accessed by steps and a platt that arches over the basement recess.

The windows predominantly have 12-pane glazing in timber sash and case style, with 15-pane glazing in the first-floor windows. The pitched roof is covered with graded grey slates and features stone skews and skewputts. There is one corniced, droved ashlar ridge stack at the centre, one corniced, droved ashlar gablehead stack to the right, and one corniced, rendered wallhead stack at the rear.

The basement recess and platts are edged with stone copes, with distinctive ornate cast iron railings surmounting the basement only.