52, 54 Castle Street, Edinburgh

A pair of classical houses built in 1792, now converted to flats. The building stands on a corner site and is Grade A listed.

The principal elevation faces south and consists of three storeys over a basement and attic, arranged in eight bays. The façade is constructed of cream sandstone ashlar with polished dressings. The ground floor features rusticated stonework, with long and short rusticated quoins and a channelled pilaster strip dividing the centre. An eaves cornice tops the elevation. The first floor windows are set within architraves and have cornices above them, with blind balustraded aprons beneath. The second floor windows are set within margins with a cill course running between them. The bays are slightly irregularly spaced.

Each of the two blocks has a tripartite pilastered doorpiece in the inner centre bay, with fluted friezes. In the south block, what was originally a plain common stair doorway in the inner bay has been filled in as a window, though the staircase itself remains intact. Each block is topped by a pair of canted piend-roofed dormers with coped skews.

The windows are 12-pane timber sash and case windows. The roof is covered in grey slates and carries a corniced rendered stack to the south, rendered stacks at the centre, and a rebuilt stone stack to the north.

The rear elevation facing north is of irregular coursed rubble construction, four storeys tall and six bays wide. Two bays on the right step forward. There is a two-storey stone extension, and a single-storey pitched-roofed block of stugged and snecked sandstone faces the lane. The centre features a rubble gable with new stone dressings to the windows.

Interior: No. 48 has been extended to the rear at basement, ground and first floor levels. The entrance hall features an enriched ceiling and a glazed arch opening to the central staircase, which has a lift in the well and square iron banisters. The stair continues to the attic. The former dining room has a large carved chimneypiece with grained gesso enrichments, fluted frieze, pilasters, urns and marble slips, together with panelled dado. At first floor level, the former drawing room has been subdivided and retains a swagged frieze and white marble Grecian chimneypiece decorated with laurel wreaths. A common stair remains for secondary access.

No. 52 has rooms flanking the entrance hall, which features a plate glass door, enriched ceiling and an archway opening to an inner hall with fluted corniced overdoors. A straight staircase on axis rises to the first floor with alternate cast-iron banisters, plaster-panelled walls and a scrolled frieze at first floor level. The staircase is topped by a very fine enriched ceiling with scrolled foliage and a further scrolled frieze at the lintel level of the landing doors. The shaped corniced overdoors display a tableau of gambolling figures.

The former dining room has decorative plaster-panelled walls, panelled dado and carved and fluted corniced overdoors. An earlier 19th-century grey slate chimneypiece is present, along with later beams following the cornices. At first floor, the north-east room has panelled pilaster frames to doors and windows and a carved and swagged chimneypiece. The north-west room has a swagged frieze. The remaining first-floor rooms have simple chimneypieces. At the centre to the south, a shallow archway with fluted piers and Corinthian capitals leads via steps to a connection with No. 48. At the rear is access to the extension and to No. 48.

The second floor, formerly a flat, is accessed from the former common stair and from No. 48. It has an arched hallway and an elegant central stair with plain square banisters rising to the attic. The north-east room has an arched and pilastered sideboard recess, panelled dado and a large carved and pilastered chimneypiece with marble slips. Two rear rooms, possibly subdivided, have carved chimneypieces. The north-west room has a swagged frieze and a tripartite window. There is access to No. 54.

Cast-iron spearhead railings enclose the property.