Description

Pirie and Clyne, 1885; John Morgan, builder. 2-storey and attic, 4-bay double villa with Egypto-Greek detailing. Rough-faced pink granite with grey granite dressings and attic floor, finely finished to margins. Base course; ground floor cill course; pilastered panelled timber doors with letterbox fanlights; projecting cills to 1st floor; finely finished lintel band course to 1st floor; parapet between gables of principal elevation.

SE (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: symmetrical; 4-bay, comprising 2 2-bay mirrored, semi-detached villas. Broad round-arched doorways to centre bays of ground floor, with scrolled horseshoe surrounds, deep-set double doors to each, single windows to 1st floor above, reveals waisted towards base, scrolled below lintel with pink rough-faced neck, deep entablature slightly advanced above with 2 navel paterae, stylised anthemion centred at wallhead. Canted windows though ground and 1st floors of bays to outer left and right, forming balcony to attic floor, pilastered mullions with sunken fillet at capital to 1st floor; gableted attic floor flanked by 2 deep scrolls, bipartite windows to each, with scrolled reveals, 2 navel paterae above, large decorative paterae set in gablehead decorative stone finial to apex; modern skylight to centre right of attic floor.

NE ELEVATION: gabled; window to centre of 1st floor; addition to outer right.

NW ELEVATION: lean-to additions to outer bays of ground floor, remainder not seen 2000; gabled outer bays at attic floor.

SW ELEVATION: gabled; window to centre of 1st floor; addition to outer left.

2-pane timber sash and case windows and replacement 2-pane timber windows with top hoppers. Grey slate roof with lead ridge. Stone skews. Corniced granite gablehead and ridge stacks with circular cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIORS: converted to flats; fine etched glass to inner porch door of No 66A, and original fireplace to principal room and decorative moulded ceiling; decorative frieze to No 66 (1st floor); majority of doors, cornices and skirting boards survive, some elongated colonnettes at angles of bay windows.

GATEPIERS AND BOUNDARY WALLS: low rough-faced pink granite Aberdeen bond walls to S with grey granite snecking and coping; gatepiers to left and right, shared with No 62 and Nos 68-70 Hamilton Place (see separate listings), grey granite shaft swept up from plinth, rough-faced pink granite neck surmounted by scrolled cap, rubble dividing walls to E and W.

Statement of Interest

A-Group with 63, 79, 62, 68-70, 72, 74-76, 78-80, 82-84, 86-88, 90-92, 94-96 and 98 Hamilton Place Place, Whitehill Bowling Green Wall and 87 Fountainhall Road (see separate listings). 64-66 Hamilton Place is part of J B Pirie (1851-1892) and Arthur Clyne's (1853-1924) finest terrace. It was built for John Morgan (b. 1841), an Aberdeen builder who specialised in high quality granite cutting and carving. Morgan was a close friend of Pirie, and was involved in much of the work undertaken by the partnership. The majority of Pirie and Clyne's houses on Hamilton Place follow the same formula: symmetrical double villas of mirrored plan, 2 gables to the attic, with a parapet running between. Although the houses follow the same composition, each pair is slightly different from the next, unified by the massing, masonry techniques and variations of the same decorative motifs. From the plans it would appear that the houses were designed in outline first, then details were added later. The navel-like paterae appear in the majority of the designs by the partnership. The paterae are probably a development of the sunflower (a favourite motif of the Aesthetic Movement) or daffodil. A variation of the patera is also a favourite motif of Alexander Thomson, who appears to have been a strong influence on Pirie in particular. The use of different colours of granite, as in 64-66 Hamilton Place, gives added interest to the decorative elevations. Of note at 64-66 Hamilton Place are the scrolled horseshoe doorways, which are repeated on some of the other houses on the street. Despite the similarities with the work of Thomson, Pirie and Clyne's designs are also highly individual. Their buildings combine High Victorian gothic, Greek, Scots Baronial, Aesthetic Movement and even proto-Art Nouveau motifs.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17576510

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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