38 West Register Street, Edinburgh is a Grade B listed building in the City of Edinburgh local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 14 December 1970. Warehouse.
38 West Register Street, Edinburgh
- WRENN ID
- fading-barrel-holly
- Grade
- B
- Local Planning Authority
- City of Edinburgh
- Constituency
- Edinburgh North and Leith MP: Tracy Gilbert (Lab)
- Country
- Scotland
- Date first listed
- 14 December 1970
- Type
- Warehouse
- Address
- 38 West Register Street, Edinburgh, EH2 2AA
- OS grid reference
- NT 257 740
- Coordinates
- 55.95371, -3.19086
- Source
- Historic Environment Scotland listing
Description
38 West Register Street in Edinburgh is a former warehouse and printers, built in 1864 by W Hamilton Beattie (formerly George Beattie and Son). This symmetrical, four-storey building with an attic showcases Venetian Gothic architecture and is constructed from polished cream sandstone. The ground floor features a semi-elliptical arcade and a rope-moulded cornice. Above, the first and second floors have a pointed arch arcade with a dentilled cornice, teardrop-headed windows separated by a pierced band, and intricate carvings at the first floor. The third floor is adorned with trefoil-headed windows and a bracketed cornice. The corners of the building are canted, with impressive carved arched doorways that are now blocked, and there are two windows on each floor above, topped with pierced parapets.
The south elevation consists of seven bays, with a broad, slightly projecting central bay that has an arched pend at the ground level, flanked by painted bronze bas-relief portraits. This elevation features a polychrome treatment and a single arch above, with two windows on the third floor.
The west elevation is a six-bay return that adjoins a modern block, while the east elevation is also a six-bay return that connects to a northeast block.
The windows are timber plate glass casement types, and the building has a modern mansard roof fitted with Velux windows and grey slates.
The northeast block, formerly No 38, is an earlier 19th-century classical corner block with five storeys and an attic, featuring four bays on each elevation. It is made from droved cream sandstone ashlar, with plate glass shop windows and a cornice at the ground level, as well as cill bands at the first and second floors. The block has a cornice and a solid parapet, and it adjoins a modern block to the west.
The windows in this block are 12-pane timber sash and case types, and it also has a modern mansard roof with Velux windows and grey slates.
The interior of both blocks has been converted for modern office use.
Local climate
38 West Register Street, Edinburgh sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 970 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 76% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 53% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 43 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 81% of listed buildings. Of these, 25 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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