Mercantile Buildings, 54, 56 Bell Street, Dundee

The Mercantile Buildings at 44-48 Bell Street in Dundee, attributed to architect James MacLaren, date from the later 19th century. This pair of identical commercial buildings features four storeys and an attic, with a three-bay design. The front is constructed of red ashlar, with a grey ashlar doorpiece, while the rear is made of cream random rubble and cream brick, accented with ashlar dressings. The buildings have a slate roof.

On the ground floor, there are two shopfronts and a decorative cornice, with additional cornices at the first floor and a cill course at the third floor. The buildings display a wallhead course, corniced eaves, and ashlar-coped skews, along with corniced axial and end stacks. The windows include single, paired, and tripartite architraved designs, with round-headed panels on the second floor and corbelled cills featuring decorative cast-iron window guards. The large dormer has a pedimented window at the center, flanked by bipartite windows at angles, and a corniced stack rises behind the pediment, topped with original pattern terracotta cans. The cast-iron rainwater goods are adorned with decorative fixings.

On the front elevation, the building on the left has a two-leaf panelled door with a fanlight at the center, set within a keystoned round-headed stop-chamfered doorcase with a bracketted lintel. There is a modern shopfront to both the left and right of the entrance. Above, a single window is centered on the first floor, flanked by pilasters and tripartite windows on either side. The second and third floors feature a window in the center, flanked by pilasters and bipartite windows, along with the dormer above. The building on the right mirrors the left but retains its original shopfronts and has a satellite dish on the first floor.

The rear elevation shows brick projections on the left and right, with various windows on all floors, including two segmental and two piended dormers.

The interior has not been seen. At the rear, there is a three-storey, two-bay building, possibly dating from the 18th century, which is set back from the left building. This structure has a blocked door and window, an enlarged entrance with a modern sliding door, and a narrow window at ground level. The first floor features two windows and another narrow window, while the second floor has two windows with piended dormerheads. The rear elevation is blank but has various blocked openings.