21-23 Braid Avenue, Edinburgh

This is a terrace of five, three- and four-bay, two-storey flatted houses with a mansard attic and basement, designed by R Rowand Anderson and built in 1897. The houses are situated on a slope. They are constructed of variegated sandstone, squared and snecked rubble, with polished ashlar dressings. The rear elevation uses square and snecked stugged rubble with stugged ashlar dressings. A moulded cill course runs along the first-floor windows, and there is an eaves cornice. The window reveals are chamfered, with ashlar mullions. The front doors have corniced surrounds with panelled pilasters, large carved consoles, uniform panelled doors, and six-pane fanlights. Full-height canted windows have tall ashlar parapets that break the eaves and pedimented tripartite dormers above. Pulvinated friezes adorn the timber dormers.

The front (west) elevation’s central houses (Nos 25 & 27) and the house to the left (Nos 21 & 23) form a four-bay arrangement, with a central entrance door to the right. To the left of the centre is a bay with full-height canted windows. The outer-right bay has bipartite windows to both the ground and first floors, and the outer-left bay features an entrance door. To the right of the centre are four bays (Nos 29 & 31) with entrance doors to the left of the centre and the outer-right. A full-height canted window is present to the right of the centre; the outer-left bay has bipartite windows to both floors. The end houses (Nos 19 & 33) have mirrored, three-bay elevations with a central entrance door; an outer bay features a full-height canted window, while the inner bay has bipartite windows to both floors.

The rear (east) elevation reveals raised basements, shallow canted windows to the end houses, tall stair windows, and rectangular rendered oriels supported by timber brackets, featuring small windows at the first floor. There are attic windows and tall wallhead stacks.

The north and south elevations are three-bay and three-storey, with a gabled bay featuring an apex stack on the right of the north elevation and the left of the south elevation. A tall, shouldered wallhead stack is positioned on the right of the north elevation and the left of the south elevation. A three-storey rectangular porch projection with a parapet and paired bipartite windows on each floor is centrally located. This projection is accessed from a curved forestair in the re-entrant angle (original ashlar balustrade on the south, replacement iron railings on the north). An architraved and pedimented doorway is on the return of the projection, and a bipartite timber dormer is in the roof.

The windows are timber sash and case, with six-pane upper sashes. Plate glass glazing is used in the lower sashes at the front, while the rear windows have two-pane lower sashes. A green slate mansard roof has red ridge tiles. There are seven wallhead stacks, two apex stacks, and mutual stacks. The skewputts are coped. Moulded eaves gutters and gutterheads are present. The interior was not inspected in 1992. A low rubble wall with curved coping borders the front, stepped and set back at the gates. Some pedestrian gates are present, alongside tall rubble walls to the sides.