7, 8 Chambers Street, Edinburgh

A three-storey, basemented building of 1887, designed by David Cousin and James Lessels, situated on the corner of Chambers Street and Guthrie Street in Edinburgh. Constructed in Scots Jacobean style, it originally served as a police training school. The building has a rectangular plan and extends ten bays down the hill to Guthrie Street. It is built of polished sandstone ashlar.

The principal elevation, three bays wide, features a canted corner with elaborate ornamentation on the upper level. A corniced band runs along the first floor, and the projecting eaves have dentils and decorative carved stone brackets. The windows on the principal elevation are segmental-arched with corniced margins and bracketed hoodmoulds, while the side elevation has rectangular windows on the ground and first floors, and segmental-arched windows on the second floor and in the attic dormers. Basement windows are segmental-arched with bars, and a timber boarded entrance leads to a vehicle entrance. The rear elevation has irregular window placement.

A recessed entrance doorway with curved glazing, flanked by full-height windows (now partially infilled), is centrally located on the principal elevation. Plain pilasters define the bays at ground level, while giant pilasters with rosette capitals extend above. The attic has pilastered dormers with scroll brackets and open segmental pediments. A central light well is present. A carved stone tablet commemorating the birthplace of Sir Walter Scott is set into the side elevation.

The main elevation has plate glass in timber sash and case windows, while the side elevation uses four-pane glazing. A bank of rooflights is located at the rear and modern glazed doors are the main entrance. The mansard roof is covered in grey slates, with a flat lead roof at the centre. A corniced wallhead stack is positioned at the southwest corner, and cast-iron rainwater goods are in place.

Interior details include decorative plaster brackets, timber window surrounds, early 19th century glazed office partitions, and a stone stair in the front section. The rear section has rough stone walls (painted), large cast-iron column and beam construction, and rough timber-boarded ceilings. A timber-boarded attic room at the rear has five-light riveted steel roof trusses. A dog leg timber stair with cast-iron banisters leads to the basement.