Edinburgh, 164 High Street

30. 164 High Street.

This tenement, built at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, has a front of droved ashlar five storeys in height with an attic in the roof. The central part of the street floor is modernised and houses a post-office. On either side is a small archway, the one to the E. giving entry to Covenant Close and the one to the W. admitting to the stair by which the upper floors are reached. At first-floor level the front is divided by four pilasters surmounted by a frieze and cornice, all of wood. In each division there is a round-headed window in which the upper part of the sashes has curved intersecting astragals of iron. These windows vary in size, the central one being the smallest and those on either side the largest, while the two immediately above the archways are intermediate in size. On each of the next two floors there is a tier of four plain windows; this arrangement is repeated on the fourth floor but here one of the windows is blind. The street floor has been remodelled. The first floor has been gutted, and now contains two rooms. The upper floors are not of any special interest.

RCAHMS 1951