147-155 High Street, Prestonpans

Dated 1881 and bearing carved initials PBC(?), 147-155 High Street is a three-storey Baronial-style tenement building with a decorative roofline and shops at ground floor. The building occupies a corner site and extends for eight bays. It is constructed of stugged brown sandstone ashlar with eroded and chamfered dressings, and features a moulded eaves course.

The north elevation, facing High Street, has four bays above the shops, with a chamfered angle bay to the outer right. Three original or largely original shopfronts remain, with stone fascias to two and a lugged hoodmould above the corner shopfront. The shopfronts have panelled doors and plain fanlights, while the stair access doors have moulded surrounds, one with a round-arched hood moulding. The corner bay is corbelled out to the first floor and again to the second floor, forming a pepperpot tower with a single window to the first floor and a bipartite window to the second, with a lugged hoodmould. Further east, bipartite windows are found to both the first and second floors, the latter topped by a crowstepped gable with a thistle finial. The remaining three bays feature single or bipartite windows to the first floor and single windows to the second, with finialled dormerheads breaking the eaves.

The west elevation, facing New Street, is three bays wide. It incorporates two shopfront windows to the ground floor, the outer left of which has a lugged hoodmould; the outer right has a bipartite window. There are three bipartite windows to the first floor, the northernmost with a hood moulding. Two windows are present on the second floor (absent from the northernmost bay), with dormerheads breaking the eaves, though the finials are now missing.

The south and east rear elevations reflect the awkward corner site. An external stone stair leads to open galleried landings, and a projecting, rounded brick tower, presumably containing lavatories, is set to the right (east). The windows are arranged in a regular pattern. A single canted dormerhead breaks the eaves on the eastmost bay, with small windows to the brick tower. Original four-panelled doors with plain fanlights have mostly been replaced.

The windows were originally timber sash and case, with plate glass to the front and four-pane glazing to the rear. They are now largely modern replacements. The roof is covered in graded grey Scotch slate and is gabled with skews. Three ashlar stacks project from the gables and ridge, each having a projecting cope and a variety of plain cans (approximately six to each). A single shouldered stack rises from the eaves on the west elevation; it is rebuilt, smooth rendered, and has four plain cans. Decorative rainwater hoppers are also present.