Crown Office, 23-25 Chambers Street, Edinburgh

The Crown Office, located at 23-25 Chambers Street, Edinburgh, is a substantial former educational building dating from 1886 to 1888. It was designed by John Chesser and incorporates two earlier buildings recessed to its left and right. The building presents a predominantly two-storey composition with a basement and attic, arranged in a complex six-bay, four-bay, three-bay, four-bay, six-bay pattern, stepped to follow the gentle slope of Chambers Street. Its construction is in sandstone ashlar, with channelled detailing at ground floor level. The building features deep-moulded cill courses, dentiled eaves, a blocking course, and balustraded cill aprons at the first floor. A mansard roof is topped with ornate iron cresting.

The central pavilion is three-storeys high and features a pair of coupled Roman Doric columns flanking a round-arched entrance with rope moulding. Above this, Corinthian columns frame a central tripartite bow window, and sculpted pilasters and central tripartite Corinthianesque colonnettes enhance the second floor level. Above, a scrolled pediment bears a figure of a putto at an anvil, culminating in a truncated pyramid roof with a wrought-iron crown.

The recessed three-storey and attic wing to the left, originally the phrenological museum, has a four-bay facade. The ground floor features a canted bay with stilted segmental arches and portrait keystones, topped by a balustraded parapet. Key-blocked and segmental-arched windows define the first floor, while round-arched windows characterize the second, all accented with Corinthianesque columns. A segmental-headed, moulded pediment tops a dormer. The recessed two-storey and attic wing to the right has segmental-arched openings, with key-blocked and consoled detailing at the first floor. Segmental-arched dormers are also present. The west wing follows this treatment for three bays and culminates in a three-bay centre bay pavilion with a round-arched ground floor. The first floor features Roman Doric pilasters with ornamented necking and frieze, and a sculpted attic panel. Bipartite round-arched windows flank the west side. The east wing has three bays to the left with superimposed pilasters, coupled at ground floor, and broad at first floor, with Corinthianesque columns to the windows. A dormer corresponds to that of the phrenological museum; the remaining three bays mirror the right side of the west wing.

The building predominantly features four and eight-pane timber sash and case windows, covered with grey slate. Cast-iron rainwater goods and slated mansard roofs with ornate iron cresting complete the exterior.

The interior, viewed in 2007, underwent a comprehensive late 20th-century refurbishment to accommodate Crown Offices serving the Sheriff Court located to the rear.