Edinburgh, 55 Abbeyhill, Police Station

Single storey, 6-bay, irregular-plan castellated Romanesque former Police Station with distinctive advanced finialled, conical-roofed fishscale slated corner turrets and deep corbelled and battlemented parapet. Snecked, rock-faced red sandstone. Deep chamfered base course, band course. Animal figure gargoyles. Central round-arched chamfered doorway with recessed 2-leaf studded timber entrance door with semi-circular fanlight above. Round-arched window openings with roll-moulded architraves, some with stone column mullions. Gabled, louvred, timber lucarnes to turrets. Later metal grids obscure windows. Grey slates. Red ridge tiles with ball finial details. Cast iron rainwater goods with decorative hoppers.

This is a richly detailed building in an unusual castellated Romanesque style which makes a significant contribution to the streetscape of this architecturally diverse area of Edinburgh. Little altered externally, the red sandstone distinguishes the building from others in the vicinity. The quality of the stonework is particularly fine with its battlemented parapet and gargoyles. The fishscale slating to the corner turrets is a further mark of the attention to detail with characterises this building. A small single-storey flat-roofed block to the rear of the building (West) may be the old police cells.

At the end of the 19th century, this area of Abbeyhill was dominated by heavy industry with a chemical works and two breweries situated close to this former Police Station, and with the railway line running close to the rear of the station. While the railway remains the heavy industry has gone. Robert Morham (1839-1912) was an Edinburgh-based architect who became the City Superintendent of Works in 1873. Currently disused (2007). (Historic Scotland)