5 -7 Abbot Street, Dunfermline

This is a two-storey and basement, three-bay office building with an attic, dating to circa 1840 and remodelled in 1882-83 by Wardrop and Reid. The building is positioned on a rectangular footprint. The architectural style blends classical and Jacobean elements, and it incorporates a Dutch gable, pedimented dormers, and Doric porches on its main (north) elevation. It is constructed of sandstone ashlar with polished ashlar dressings to the principal front, stugged and rubble side elevations, and a harled rear.

The north elevation features a projecting Dutch-gabled entrance bay to the right. Steps ascend to a pair of entrances, the right-hand one now a window, each sheltered by Doric porches supported by columns and flanking pilasters. The ground floor window of the central bay is accompanied by a canted three-light window to the left, featuring pilastered mullions and flanking pilasters. The first floor has single windows in each bay, with an apron to the central one. Pilastered dormers with broken bed pediments top each bay, displaying thistle, shamrock, and rose motifs in the pediments. An ornate, three-stage Dutch gable with a semicircular pediment sits to the right bay, with urns surmounting the corner piers.

The west elevation presents two gable-ended sections and a slightly lower section to the right, with the left gable shaped and flanked by urn-crowned angle piers. A late 20th-century part-glazed door with a rectangular fanlight provides access to the central section, alongside a narrow window to the ground and first floors. A six-light stair window is visible to the left of the central section. The south elevation features two gabled sections, with two bays to the left and one to the right, each containing a single window at basement, ground, and first floor levels. A small basement window is positioned between the second and third bays. The east elevation connects to an adjacent library via a late 20th-century enclosed walkway at first-floor level.

Most windows are two-light timber sash and case, with a grey slate roof. The building is flanked by ashlar wallhead stacks incised as pilasters, with friezes and moulded cornices on the east and west elevations. Originally, urns were present but are now mostly missing. The interior retains the original staircase with decorative cast-iron balusters, along with coloured and leaded glass stair windows.