2 Bruntsfield Crescent, Edinburgh

The Youth Hostel at 7-8 Bruntsfield Crescent in Edinburgh is a significant example of 19th-century architecture, designed by David MacGibbon and Thomas Ross for builders W and D McGregor between 1870 and 1873. This two-storey building with an attic and basement features a terrace of 12 imposing Baronial villas, each with two bays. Architectural details include a dividing string course, a first-floor lintel course, and a cornice. Notably, Nos 1 and 12 have undergone minor alterations by Robert Lorimer.

The principal elevation faces south and includes Nos 2-6, which each have a depressed-arched doorway in the outer right bay, adorned with a hoodmould and keystone that connects to a corbel course above. To the outer left, there is a three-light canted bay that rises to the first floor, topped with a blind parapet. No 1 features decorative ironwork railings on the balcony. Above the doorway in the outer right bay, there is a single window and a dormer window above, with a finial on the semi-circular dormerhead. The outer left bay is crowstep-gabled and has recessed flanks above ground, with ball-finialled angle piers that rise from the eaves cornice. Nos 7-11 are a mirror image of Nos 2-6.

No 1 mirrors the design of Nos 2-11 but has a round-arched doorway. No 12 is a mirror image of No 1. The return at No 1 features a broad, slightly advanced stack at the center of the crow-stepped gable, which has been altered at the rear. The eaves course is moulded over a date panel carved with "AD 1870." There is a single-storey, single-bay later addition with a mullioned and transomed bipartite window that breaks the eaves in the crow-stepped dormerhead. The return at No 12 has a single bay with a canted lead oriel in the re-entrant and a single-storey bay to the outer right, with an altered ground floor window. The buildings have plate glass sash and case windows, grey slate roofs, and moulded stacks with coping and full complements of cans at the mutual and end gables.

The interior of No 1 features some wood-carving, panelling, and plasterwork designed by Lorimer, including a chimney piece with bird motif carving and doorways with elegant rococo panels and carved over-doors. The interiors of Nos 2-12 showcase rich plasterwork in the principal rooms. The street is adorned with ornate wrought- and cast-iron railings, stone gatepiers, and steps leading to the entrance, along with cast-iron gates for the basement flats.