11 Melville Street, Edinburgh

An extensive classical terrace designed by Robert Brown and completed in 1814, comprising a unified façade of three-storey, basement townhouses and tenement blocks. The complex features a striking advanced centre pavilion marking the termination of Stafford Street, with a rounded corner block to the east and shops with a five-bay tenement block returning to Melville Place. Later slate-hung attic additions were made to the roof line.

The building is constructed of sandstone ashlar, channelled at ground floor level. The basements to the central pavilion are vermiculated. A banded base runs beneath the ground and first floors, with cill and string courses at these levels. The second floor is marked by a corniced cill and eaves course, with some second-floor windows meeting the string course. Breakfronted cast-iron balconies on foliate brackets decorate the first-floor windows. Basement areas to the street include vaulted cellars and retaining walls.

The central pavilion is advanced nine bays with a symmetrical composition, terminated by a three-bay tetrastyle Giant Order columned and balustraded centrepiece with paired outer columns. The central ground floor features a rounded arched doorway with narrow sidelights and a fanlight with radial and mouchette glazing. Flanking round arched windows sit in rounded recesses. Above, architraved and corniced window surrounds frame the first-floor openings, with a pedimented central window. A plain entablature and dentilled cornice run across the composition, supporting a balustraded and stepped parapet with swagged bas-relief to the centre. Segmental arched bi-partite dormers project above. The end bays are further advanced, featuring radial fanlights above doorways and architraved and corniced first-floor windows, with stepped parapets and balustrades.

The eastern corner block consists of a three-storey, five-bay townhouse with an additional recessed curved bay to the corner, and a five-bay classical tenement facing Melville Place. Advanced shops occupy the ground floor, wrapping around the corner. The Melville Street elevation features stepped parapets to flanking and corner bays with bas-relief panels. A recessed round arched surround enframes the ground-floor window on the left. The main doorway is round arched with narrow sidelights and a fanlight with radial glazing. First-floor windows are architraved and corniced, with a pedimented central bay. The curved bay features a recessed round arched surround with blind balustrade; the first-floor window is architraved, bracketed and consoled, while the second floor is architraved with blind sidelights.

Windows throughout are predominantly six-over nine-pane and twelve-pane timber sash and case to the right of the centrepiece at Melville Street, with plate glass in timber sash and case to the left of the centrepiece and at Melville Place. Lying-pane glazing appears in the curved corner bay, whilst shop fronts feature plate glass. Cast-iron railings run on ashlar coping stone edging the basement recess at Melville Street. The roof is pitched with a double pitch M-section profile, covered in grey slates, with corniced ashlar parapet and gable stacks fitted with modern clay cans.

The interior features a highly decorative classical scheme with detailed cornicing. The building was converted for office and residential use in 2008. Decorative cast-iron arched lamp holders with central lamps are present, with glass lamp bowls surviving at numbers 15, 27, 37, and 39. Original cast-iron serpent lamp extinguishers remain on the railings throughout.