21, 23 Scotland Street, Edinburgh

21 and 23 Scotland Street is a terraced tenement building designed by Robert Reid and William Sibbald, constructed between 1801 and 1804. It is four storeys high with a basement and features a wallhead attic on the fourth storey. The building is made of broached ashlar sandstone, with V-jointed rustication at the principal floor. There are band courses between the basement and the principal floor, as well as between the principal floor and the first floor. The windows on the first and second floors have projecting cills, and there are cornices at the second and third floors. The entrance is accessed via ashlar steps and platts that overhang the basement.

On the west elevation, there is a six-panel timber common stair door located in the penultimate bay from the left, which has a plate glass rectangular fanlight above it. A six-panel timber door with a rectilinear rectangular fanlight is centered at the principal floor. The remaining bays at the principal floor contain windows, with regular fenestration on the floors above and in the basement, where the openings are segmental-arched.

The north and south elevations are part of adjoining terraces, which are listed separately (25-27A Scotland Street and 15-19A Scotland Street, respectively).

The building predominantly features 12-pane timber sash and case windows, a grey slate M-roof, and cast-iron rainwater goods. There is a rendered gablehead stack that is coped and has circular cans.

While the interiors were not seen in 1997, there is some evidence of working panelled shutters. The railings consist of ashlar copes topped with cast-iron railings that have spear-headed balusters and urn finials.