4, 6 Merchiston Crescent, Edinburgh

This is a large, asymmetrical villa dating to approximately 1868. It is constructed of cream-coloured sandstone, with a mixture of coursed and snecked rubble walls and polished ashlar dressings. Some areas of the rear feature droved and bull-faced ashlar. A band course runs along the ground floor, and a string course continues the capitals at the first floor. The windows are architraved with segmental arches, incorporating ashlar colonnette-mullions and nook-shafts, with carved foliate capitals to the front and sides. Channelled quoins define the corners, and paired brackets support the eaves cornice. A decorative balustrade, now missing from the west side, is topped with festooned urn finials.

The south (front) elevation has a recessed bay on the far right, housing a single-story entrance porch within a re-entrant angle. The porch features segmental arches supported by a column with foliage and masque capitals, a balustrade with a ball finial, a panelled door with a moulded surround, and a tiled vestibule. A single window sits above the porch. The remaining three bays include a slightly recessed central bay with an advanced tripartite window on the ground floor, which has been altered to form a doorway. Two single windows are positioned above. The outer bays are channel-quoined and feature canted windows on the ground floor, with a parapet, ball finials and bipartite windows above, incorporating floral chip-carving to the lintel.

The west (East Castle Road) elevation has three bays; a central bay with a tall single window on the ground floor, and slightly advanced tripartite windows at ground floor level in the two outer bays. Bipartite windows with floral chip-carving to the lintel are above.

The east elevation consists of three bays. A tripartite window is present at ground floor level to the bay on the left, with a single window above. An advanced central bay features a single window on the ground floor and a bipartite window with a bracketed sill above. A chamfered bay is on the far right with a single window on the ground floor and another at the first floor, also with a bracketed sill.

The north (rear) elevation presents an advanced bay to the left, corbelled above the ground floor, with a single window at the first floor and a bipartite window with a bracketed sill breaking the eaves, topped with a plain parapet. A corbelled corner turret rises at the first floor in the re-entrant angle to the right, accented by a single window. A central, single-story extension with a piend roof extends to the right. A tall, round-arched stair window is positioned above, flanked by single windows. On the ground floor, a rear door is to the left, and single windows are positioned at the first floor of the recessed bay on the far right.

The villa has plate glass timber sash and case windows, a slate piend and platform roof, two corniced ridge stacks, and one wallhead stack to the rear. Moulded cast-iron gutterheads are also present. The interior was not inspected in 1992.

The property is approached via three substantial, square, tapering, coped gatepiers with cut-away arrises, with two additional piers at a new development on the adjoining land.