Exchange Coffee House, 15 Shore Terrace, Dundee

The Exchange Coffee House, located at 15 Shore Terrace, Dundee, was designed by George Smith of Edinburgh and built in 1828. It is a substantial, rectangular, two- and three-storey building originally intended as public meeting rooms, situated on a prominent corner block. The building is constructed from sandstone ashlar, with the ground floor painted. A concealed roof sits behind a corniced parapet, which is balustraded along the Dock Street elevation.

The front (Shore Terrace) elevation features a Greek Doric order on the ground floor and Ionic on the first. A continuous cill band runs along the first floor, and a corniced parapet tops the building. Large four-pane timber sash and case windows are a prominent feature of the principal floor, with fifteen-pane windows, architraves, and cornices on the five right-hand bays of the Dock Street elevation; twelve-pane windows are found elsewhere. Corniced stacks are also present. The main entrance is a two-leaf panelled door set within a columned portico, flanked by columned shopfronts. The piano nobile (main floor) has five windows with consoled cornices. A wreathed clock is positioned above the centre window, with the three centre bays pilastered, and the outer bays slightly advanced, each featuring a distyle Ionic portico. An altered entrance to a public house is located on the right, and a window now occupies the space of a former door on the left.

The Exchange Street elevation is ten bays wide, with five original doors on the ground floor, one blocked as a window. There are six shop windows and a segmental-arched pend entry on the left side. Ten windows are present on the first and second floor, with three bays to the right blinded. A Mansard roof with dormers is set back behind the parapet.

The Dock Street elevation is divided into two sections. To the left is a two-storey, three-bay section. The ground floor has a four-bay pilastered front, with alterations to window and door arrangements. The piano nobile features a tripartite window in a recessed segmental panel, with a balustraded apron and Tower of the Winds columned mullions, flanked by windows similar to those on Shore Terrace. The right side of the elevation is a three-storey, five-bay section with three doors (one blocked as a window) and four shop windows to the ground floor, and five windows on the first and second floors. A Mansard roof with dormers is positioned behind the parapet.

The interior is of exceptional quality and well preserved. A fluted Doric columned corridor leads to a wide, cantilevered staircase, which has cast-iron anthemion balusters. A large, blocked tripartite window and coffered ceiling are also present. The first-floor hall has a coved ceiling that is thirty feet high, showcasing original joinery and Greek key plasterwork. A later skylight has been added, and a complex Queen-post roof is visible. The ground floor features mosaic flooring and stained glass to the inner doors. A partly groin-vaulted basement is also included.