Inland Revenue Office, 280 George Street, Glasgow

The Inland Revenue Office, located at 280 George Street in Glasgow, was designed by architect W W Robertson in 1885. This three-storey building, which includes an attic and basement, features Renaissance details and French roofs.

The building has a symmetrical five-bay facade facing George Street and an asymmetrical six-bay facade on North Frederick Street, both showcasing similar architectural details. The exterior is finished in polished ashlar, with rusticated and channelled stonework at the ground level.

On the George Street elevation, the shallow advanced end bays are topped with French pavilion roofs, flanking a central entrance bay that is wider and features tripartite openings. All ground floor openings are round-arched, with the doorway being tripartite and flanked by sidelights, all round-arched and supported by pilasters that hold up moulded archivolts. The door itself is square-headed with recessed double-leaf panelled doors and a round-arched tympanum displaying a heraldic crest. Above the door, there is a bracketed balustraded balcony. The ground floor windows are single light with recessed reveals and decorative console keystones. The outer two bays have single light windows, while the central bay features tripartite windows, all architraved above ground and with consoled pediments on the first floor. All windows are sash and case, with plate-glass glazing on the ground floor and four-pane glazing on the upper floor.

A continuous balustraded blind balcony runs along the first floor. Giant pilasters connect the second and third floors at the angles of the advanced bays. The building is topped with a heavy mutulated cornice and a balustraded parapet, which has die piers that support urns. The end bays are capped with tall French roofs that include round-headed dormers, while the central bay features bipartite dormers. The roofs are slate, with cast-iron cresting on the pavilion roofs and tall corniced axial stacks.

The North Frederick Street elevation has an angled bay at the southwest corner and a six-bay asymmetrical design with a shallow recessed off-centre narrow bay that contains a round-arched door. The architectural details are consistent with those on the George Street elevation, except that the three northern bays on the third floor have bipartite windows.