Playhouse Theatre, 18, 20, 22 Greenside Place, Edinburgh

John Fairweather, 1927-1929. Classical, symmetrical 2-storey and attic, 11-bay theatre-cinema with shops to ground and exceptional decorative interior. Polished ashlar, brick and glazed brick to rear. Band course and dentilled main cornice dividing 1st and attic floor; deep cill course to attic floor; eaves cornice; balustraded parapet (solid parapet to advanced pavilions). Pilasters dividing bays to 1st floor. Regular fenestration (irregular to rear and side elevations); aediculed 1st floor windows to advanced pavilions; recessed margins to attic windows.

W (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: 1-bay advanced pavilions at outer left and right. 4, 2-leaf timber and 8-pane glazed doors with letterbox fanlights to centre 3 bays, set in opening with panelled ingoes and soffit and blocked reeded surround. Flanking to left and right, 3-bay shopfronts; large windows to left and right with curved profiles into recessed doorway to centre; timber fascia with surmounting dentilled cornice above. To pavilion at right, 1-bay shopfront with windows at left and right curving towards recessed doorway at centre; timber fascia, dentilled cornice. To pavilion at left, full width recessed opening with glazing above. Attic floor cill course to central 3 bays raised to form parapet, flanked left and right by pedestals supporting globes.

Plate glass to ground floor; plate glass with margined glazing pattern to upper floors. To W, pitched roof, grey slate, stone skews; flat roof to E section.

INTERIOR: impressive, opulent interior decoration with much original material extant. Outer foyer: Ionic pilasters, coffered ceiling with cavetto and bay-leaf garland cornicing. Inner foyer: coffered barrel vaulted ceiling, top-lit stained glass centre sections. Block-cornice, egg-and dart moulding. Classically detailed timber door-pieces at left and right. Above inner and outer foyers at 1st floor are large function rooms, similarly decorated, one with windows with coloured glass decoration. Auditorium: cantilevered circle and balcony, both semi-elliptically fronted. Cavetto architraved proscenium arch with splayed flanking sections. Double-coved coffered ceiling, featuring block-cornice. Lavish decorative details throughout, of mixed classical and rococo style. Blind Serlian motifs at upper level.