1 Grassmarket, Edinburgh

1 Grassmarket in Edinburgh is a four-storey and attic tenement building dating from around 1875, rebuilt after a fire by James Maclean in 1897, with later alterations and additions. The building features Scots Baronial details, including corner bartizans, and is situated on a splayed corner at Stables Road. It has a six-bay rear wing and a projecting three-storey wing facing King's Stables Road, along with a modern single-storey triangular infill.

The exterior is constructed of squared and snecked stugged sandstone with polished dressings, while the rear wing is made of random rubble. The principal block has roll-moulded and tabbed surrounds for the first and second storey windows, with shoulder-arched windows on the third storey. A moulded string course separates the storeys, and there is a machicolated corbelled course between the second and third storeys. The attic windows feature gabled dormerheads with crescent finials that break the eaves.

On the northeast elevation facing Grassmarket, the entrance is located in the central bay and consists of a timber panelled door with a semicircular fanlight, set within a segmental-arched moulded surround that includes a horse-shoe arch. To the right is a window with modern glazing, and to the left is a two-leaf timber panelled door in broad segmental-arched openings. The upper floors are regularly fenestrated. The crenellated corner bartizan tower has two carved panels that are corbelled out above the ground floor, and it previously featured a conical fish-scale slated roof.

The north elevation facing King's Stables Road has a window in a broad segmental-arched opening at ground level, with regular fenestration above. It features long and short quoins, and a corner bartizan with a conical slated roof that is corbelled out at the third floor. There is a two-storey crowstep-gabled projecting wing on the outer right, with modern garage entrances at ground level and regular fenestration. Above, there is a carved panel and a corbelled apex stack, along with small castellated corner bartizans at the second floor on both sides, and a chamfered corner leading to Lady Wynd.

The rear wing is also regularly fenestrated and has a moulded string course below the attic level. It features a crowstepped gable at the centre with a wallhead stack and a moulded arch over a window, as well as a small corner bartizan on the outer right.

The building has 12-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows, grey slate roofing, and decorative terracotta ridge tiles. The chimney stacks are corniced, with some featuring octagonal cans.