The colossal figure of Atlas above the Hope Street attic shows him crouching under the weight of a massive globe on his shoulders. The attic pediment on the corner of Gordon Street contains a relief of the parable of the 'Wise and Foolish Virgins', with five standing wise virgins on their way to the bridegroom's house, and five foolish virgins reclining or kneeling in the corners. The treatment is identical to Sir John Steell's treatment of the subject on the Standard Building on George Street, Edinburgh (1839). The building is decorated with lavishly carved friezes, incorporating rams' heads, detached colonettes, balustrades and cornices, mostly above the second floor level on both frontages and over the two entrances on Hope Street.