Bowershall Mills, Mcdonald Road, Edinburgh

Bowershall Mills, located on McDonald Road in Edinburgh, is a former coal-fired power generating station designed by City Engineer John Cooper in 1899. The building has a rectangular plan and features an Italian Renaissance basilica elevation facing McDonald Road. It includes a two-storey southern section that housed offices and a former printing works, alongside a towering brick stack. The structure is constructed of variegated brick with a cream stugged ashlar elevation, which is currently painted and suffering from spalling. The southeast angle of the elevation is accentuated with bull-blocks.

The southwest elevation, facing McDonald Road, consists of four symmetrical bays on the outer right. It has a moulded base course, a cornice over the ground floor, a cill course, a bracketed cornice, and a coped parapet. There are four segmental-arched and keystoned blind openings at the plinth level, and four round-arched openings at the principal storey, flanked by slim pilasters and topped with pediments (round-headed in the outer bays). Giant pilasters divide the bays, with the two central bays breaking the eaves in a pediment. Blind oculi are set in round-headed panels.

The southeast elevation reveals an exposed steel frame with brick infill, forming ten bays, with a single-storey addition on the left. It features a blind round-arched opening and a cornice on the outer left, as well as vehicle access with modern steel roller doors at the centre. There are five large ventilation openings with timber shutters and nine metal fins at the eaves.

The northeast (rear) elevation is gabled and consists of three bays, with brick pilasters and a blind oculus set in the gablehead. The roof is covered with grey slate, although the original roof lights have been removed.

Inside, the building has glazed brick walls and an open steel lattice roof. A short section of the original cast-iron gallery remains, along with a gantry on rails, but there are modern breeze block additions and no original machinery.

The printing works and offices are represented by the outer right section of the two-storey former offices pavilion, which features a pedimented doorway with flanking pilasters (the gable has been removed or was never built). Large round-arched windows are present in the gabled bays of the surviving rear portion of the building's northeast elevation.

The stack has a square base that rises through the printing works, culminating in a polygonal red brick chimney stalk with ribbed angles. The top of the stack features three varying stages of decorative blind arcading, along with a cornice and coping.