20-25 Ardmillan Terrace, Edinburgh

19 Ardmillan Terrace, Edinburgh, was built in 1887 to the design of John C Hay. It is a Baronial-style tenement, comprising a principal block that turns an acute corner into a five-stage tower, with shops at ground level, attics at intervals, and culminating in a three-storey residential block set on a sloping site. The building is constructed of squared and snecked sandstone with ashlar dressings, stop-chamfered arrises, and tabbed margins. Principal gables are crowstepped. A cornice sits above the original two- and three-bay shopfronts, and a third floor is positioned above a decorative corbel course.

The corner tower, to the south, features bowed corner bays with an attic that breaks the eaves on a rope-moulded corbel course, topped with a conical roof. A door with a large square fanlight is located at No. 25 Ardmillan Terrace. Paired windows are found at the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd floors, with gabled dormerheads to the corniced attic storey. Two-stage bowed bartisans flank the tower, corbelled above the 2nd floor, each incorporating a bipartite window at the 3rd floor, gunloop windows to the upper stage, and an ogee roof. A decorative plaque, inscribed "LET THE EARTH REJOICE," is positioned to the west above the 1st floor, with "JUBILEE 1887" carved in the stone below.

The west (Ardmillan Terrace) elevation’s principal block is five bays wide. A door to the common stair is in the 4th bay from the left, surmounted by a consoled semi-circular pediment and ball finial, with stair windows above. A broad 5th bay adjoins the tower, featuring a corbel table and single windows; a gablehead chimney with a small pedimented window is near the attic. A single window is situated in the centre bay, on the 3rd floor a replacement window is set within a gablehead. Bipartite and single windows are present on each floor in the gabled bay to the outer left, the angle rounded and corbelled to square at the 3rd floor.

The residential blocks both recess, stepping slightly downhill. Low squared and snecked front walls with ashlar coping step down the hill; railings survive to the south bays of No. 19. The southern block (No. 19) is nearly symmetrical, with four storeys and four bays (lacking a corbel course), featuring canted windows to the outer bays. The outer left side has a piend roof and a crowstepped gable that blends with a neighbouring crowstepped dormerhead; the outer right is corbelled to square at the 3rd floor with a tripartite window. The inner right side has a pedimented dormerhead with ball finials and a shield within the tympanum; the inner left side mirrors this, and features a door at ground level and a small window to the left. No. 18 is similar, but three stories high, with a door and window in the inner right bay. The outer right bay projects from No. 19, with only the inner angle being canted, corbelled to a narrower window at the 2nd floor, and to a square above it; bipartite windows are at the 1st and 2nd floors, with a tripartite window above. The north angle is swept and corbelled to square between the 1st and 2nd storeys.

The southeast (Angle Park Terrace) elevation is six bays wide and features a corbel table above the 1st floor. Stair windows are in the 2nd and 4th bays from the left, with single windows in the other bays. Gablehead chimneys with attic windows are present on the 1st and 2nd bays. Replacement gableheads are on the 3rd floor windows in the 3rd, 5th, and 6th bays.

Original plate glass timber sash and case windows are present throughout, although some regrettable replacements exist. Moulded skewputts, along with ball and thistle finials, are features of the building. A variety of carved panels adorn the gableheads, and coped stacks are visible. Grey slates cover the roof. Decorative iron finials and a weathervane are on the tower, along with moulded guttering and cast-iron downpipes.