British Linen Bank, 82 High Street, Dunfermline

The British Linen Bank, located at 82 High Street, Dunfermline, was designed by David Cousin and built in 1874 for the British Linen Bank. It is a three-storey building of rectangular plan, constructed in an Italianate style. The High Street elevation features a Doric entrance porch and elaborately consoled cornices above the first-floor windows.

The street elevations are faced with polished sandstone ashlar, while the remaining exterior is of coursed stugged sandstone. The building features a base course, a semi-rusticated ground floor with a frieze and moulded cornice, and band courses linking the first-floor windows and forming a frieze below the moulded eaves cornice. The street-facing openings are architraved, with segmental-headed windows on each floor, except for a canted window. The second-floor windows have keystones and elaborately consoled cornices. Bracketed cills are present on the second-floor windows.

The south (High Street) elevation is three bays wide. The entrance has a shallow Doric porch supported by columns with pilasters, leading to a round-arched doorway with a panelled timber door and fanlight. A canted window is located to the outer right, and a window is positioned centrally. The first and second floors have regular fenestration with windows in each bay. Balconies with balustraded parapets are situated above the porch and the canted ground floor window, while a flush balustrade runs along the central window.

The east (Douglas Street) elevation, five bays wide, has an entrance with scrolled brackets supporting a hood and a segmental-headed doorway containing a six-panel timber door. A blocked window is to the left of the entrance, with regularly fenestrated bays to the right. An aediculed niche with a shell-headed pediment and a rectangular panel are located to the outer left of the first floor.

The north and west elevations are irregularly fenestrated. The building is largely fitted with two-pane timber sash and case windows. Gablehead stacks, with band courses and moulded coping, are present on the north, east, and west sides; the east stack has scrolled shoulders, and the north stack is a gablehead stack.

The interior, partially inspected in 1988, features an entrance from Douglas Street leading to a vestibule with an inner doorcase screen and a panelled timber door with a glazed upper panel of etched glass. A quarter-turn stone staircase with a cast-iron balustrade and decorative pendant bases to the rails is also present.