34, 36, 38 Montgomery Street, Edinburgh

34, 36, 38 Montgomery Street in Edinburgh is a classical corner block designed by William H Playfair and built in 1825. This near-symmetrical building features three storeys, a basement, and an attic. The exterior is primarily made of polished ashlar, with droved ashlar (painted on the Windsor Street elevation) at the basement level, predominantly rendered surfaces on the attic floor and southwest gable, and squared coursed rubble with dressed margins at the rear.

Architectural details include a base course, a band course separating the basement and ground floor, and a cill course (defaced) on the first and second floors. There are also band courses and a main cornice dividing the second and attic floors, along with an eaves cornice and blocking course. The building has regular fenestration, with sunken panelled aprons beneath the ground floor windows and architraves (some defaced) on the ground, first, and second floors facing Windsor Street.

On the northwest elevation (Windsor Street), there is a five-bay layout. The ground floor features a central bay with a platt that leads to a timber-panelled door topped by a distinctive five-light letterbox fanlight. The north elevation (Montgomery Street) has a seven-bay layout, with steps and a platt leading to timber-panelled doors with a similar five-light letterbox fanlight in the third and fourth bays from the left, and painted margins around the doorway in the third bay.

The glazing is predominantly 12-pane, with 4-pane glazing on the ground floor facing Windsor Street and plate glass in the attic floor (only on the bottom sashes of the first and second bays from the left). Most windows are timber sash and case. The roof is M-pitched, piended at the southwest end, covered with grey slate, and features stone skews and skewputts. There are two corniced ashlar stacks at the centre, a corniced gablehead stack to the east, and a rendered wallhead stack to the southeast, with predominantly circular cans.

The basement recess and platts are edged with cast-iron railings that have spear-head finials, spear-headed dog bars, and a circular patterned border.