35, 36, 37, 38, 39 Sandport Street, Leith, Edinburgh

Building at 35, 36, 37, 38, 39 Sandport Street, Leith, Edinburgh

A massive four and five-storey Italianate tenement block designed by George Roberts and Son between 1870 and 1875, incorporating a former hotel and turning the corner with a bow range. The building is constructed in polished cream sandstone ashlar with facades unified by a base course and cornice above the ground floor. Moulded architraves frame the first and second floor windows with moulded cill courses; the first floor windows are further distinguished by cornices and plain tablet friezes. A band course runs above the second floor, the third floor windows have plain architraves with bracketed cills, and a heavy corbelled cornice crowns the building, concealing the guttering.

The east elevation on Commercial Wharf presents four storeys and an attic across eight bays. Six central bays are irregularly grouped in pairs with single windows at ground level, and a door to the centre-right bay. The projecting end bays feature a raised cornice and tripartite windows to each floor with ashlar mullions and plain architraves. The upper floors are recessed between pilaster strips with band courses separating each floor. The third floor lights are round-headed with keystones. A box-dormer to the inner left and skylights pierce the roofline. A blank rubble return extends to the south.

The north elevation on Commercial Street spans four storeys and an attic across 22 bays. At ground level, two-bay shops are fitted with two-leaf panelled doors and two-pane plate glass windows in roll-moulded frames, alternating with four-leaf panelled tenement doors, each with a large rectangular fanlight and glazed doors beyond, all unified by a single cornice. The upper floors are recessed between two-bay end pavilions arranged as follows from left to right: a bay with a tenement door, ten bays containing five shops, a bay with a tenement door, and six bays containing three shops. The pavilions feature keystoned round-headed windows at third floor level and raised cornices. A decorative extended cast iron balcony runs between the pavilions at first floor level. Six segmental-headed dormers sit behind the parapet.

The northwest elevation on Sandport Street presents two distinct phases unified at ground level and cornice height. The northern range is four storeys and attic with ten bays; the southern range rises to five storeys and attic across twelve bays, fitted into the same overall height. Shops and tenement doors with a continuous cornice above the top floor unite both ranges.

The north range features a three-bay curved corner to Commercial Street with a bay of paired windows to the right. A large tenement door occupies the centre bay, with shops to the remaining bays. Three dormers and a skylight are set above. To the right, six bays feature a mansard roof and box-dormers, with the outer bays having bipartite windows. Four shops occupy the ground floor with a tenement door at the centre, though the cornices that originally adorned the first floor windows have been removed.

The south range has four pairs of shops at ground level with two tenement doors between them. The upper floors are largely unornamented except for the continuation of the moulded cill course to the first floor. Nine northern bays are grouped in threes with closet windows at the centre, followed by three further bays to the right. A mansard roof with box-dormers crowns this range. A blocked doorcase with pilasters and pediment to the right is all that remains of a further demolished range.

The rear elevations are built in coursed rubble with a raised wallhead accommodating the attic storey, except at the east end of the Commercial Street range. The rear of Sandport Street is notched, apparently to accommodate the bows of an old graving dock, now filled in.

The windows throughout are timber sash and case; plate glass with four-pane lights appears in the single windows of the northwest elevation. The roof is covered in grey slates with corniced ashlar stacks.

The interior of the Commercial Street range reveals a fine open scale with platt common stairs featuring turned and blocked mahogany balusters and panelled posts. The flats were not inspected as of 1993.