General Register House, Princes Street, Edinburgh

Robert Adam, 1774-88; Robert Reid, 1822-34. 2-storey on raised basement neo-classical quadrangular record office with domed circular reading room in centre of court. Polished cream sandstone ashlar (cleaned abrasively in 1969). Projecting taller single bay pavilions at corners and centre of side elevations, with balustraded parapet; those at corners with cupola on square base with free-standing columns at angles, bearing respectively clock and wind vane (blind to rear pavilions). Ground floor and pavilions arcaded with windows set in arches; base course and impost course. Cill course at 1st floor, cornice and blocking course.

S (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: 13-bay. Rusticated at ground with attached tetrastyle Corinthian centrepiece with pediment bearing roundel of Royal Arms in Liardet?s patent stucco; advanced pavilions with pair of Corinthian columns at 1st floor framing Venetian windows set in recessed arches. 1st floor windows with architraves and cornices; centrepiece with consoled cornices and balustrades, festooned Liardet?s stucco panels above; flagpoles to centre window and roof. Imperial stair with flanking walls (see Notes).

SIDE ELEVATIONS: 9-bay; plain windows.

REAR ELEVATION: 13-bay. 5-bay centrepiece arcaded at ground with alternating pedimented and corniced 1st floor windows; 3-bay links to corner pavilions as above. At centre ground single storey link to Back Dome (see separate listing).

Timber sash and case 12-pane windows. Piended roofs; grey slates; leaded dome.

INTERIOR: of vaulted fireproof construction. Groin-vaulted entrance Hall restored and adapted by Simpson and Brown, 1993, with massive new chimneypiece. Reid?s metal gates to Rotunda rising full-height to oculus of dome; neo-classical plasterwork of dome executed by Thomas Clayton to Adam?s design of 1785 (repainted 1973-4). E and W staircases with arched screens at ground (both now house lift shafts). Lord Clerk Register?s Room at centre of S front (behind portico) with enriched frieze and grey marble chimneypiece. Reid?s interiors start with double cantilevered stair in shallow but tall curved space beyond Rotunda, leading to Historical Search Room (originally Antiquarian Room) lined with 2 storeys of bookcases and timber gallery; heavily moulded Grecian ceiling of compartmentalised rosettes.