10 Sciennes House Place, Edinburgh

This is a four-storey Scottish Baronial-style police station with residential accommodation, built in 1884 to the designs of Robert Morham, the city architect. The building is square in plan, with a chamfered corner and two-storey blocks projecting to the rear, one of which was raised from single-storey shortly after its completion. It is constructed of squared and snecked Craigleith sandstone, with ashlar dressings, a prominent base course, string courses above the ground floor and below the third floor, a jettied third floor with stepped detail, and chamfered reveals.

The North elevation features a wide gabled bay to the left, containing a round-arched doorway within a deeply chamfered surround with a moulded arch, a bold cable hoodmould, and decorative label stops. A two-leaf door is set within the arch. A single window is located above the doorway at the first floor. The City of Edinburgh’s armorial crest is set within a square panel in the jettied gablehead. A prominent stack breaks the skew of the gablehead to the right, and a corner turret intercepts to the left. A narrow, blind arrowslit is positioned at the apex of the gable. Three windows span the central bays at ground floor level, with a window on each floor above. Bipartite windows are used on the third floor to the left of centre, with a gabled dormerhead breaking the eaves to the right. A gabled stair bay is located to the outer right, with a door at ground floor level flanked by a window, a bipartite window above, and single windows to the second and third landings.

Two-storey blocks project from the West return. The North gable of the four-storey wallhead includes a round-arched panel and a square stair window at the eaves line, previously open with railings. Square windows punctuate the taller bay to the right.

The East elevation is four bays wide, with a chamfered corner. The central bays are gabled, and a door at ground floor level is situated in the bay to the left of centre, featuring a deep fanlight above. A high window is located to the right. Windows are placed in each bay at every floor above the ground floor, with the second-floor windows overhung by the jetty. A shield panel is positioned at the apex. Bipartite windows are present at ground floor, first floor, and second floor in the outer left bay; a single window is housed within a gabled dormerhead on the third floor.

The chamfered corner bay consists of a wider window at ground floor level, a window at first floor level, and canted windows on the second and third floors, forming a turret that breaks through the eaves into a polygonal roof with a decorative wrought-iron finial. An intercepting gablehead is visible on the North elevation.

Two gabled projections extend East-West from the West elevation; these are two-storey blocks with a door and windows at ground floor level on the North side. The first floor is jettied, incorporating arrowslits. The North block was originally single-storey, with a drying green located above.

The interior, which was not inspected in 1990, includes plans indicating cells at ground floor level, with kitchens, bedrooms, and smaller bed closets located on the first, second, and third floors.

The building is characterised by ball finials to the gabled dormerheads. Eight-pane glazing is the predominant pattern in the sash and case windows, although some are currently blocked. The roof is covered with grey-green slates in a fish-scale pattern over the polygonal roof. Wallhead stacks have a moulded coping, and the crowstepped gables feature beak skewputts.