Description

Earlier 19th century. 3-storey and attic 4-bay Classical tenement with altered commercial premises to ground. Grey granite ashlar, channelled to entrance door to far left, rubble to rear. Cill courses, eaves cornice. Pedimented and piended dormers. Recessed pilastered doorpiece to far left with 4-panel timber entrance door with semi-circular fanlight above. Architraved and corniced windows at 1st storey.

Predominantly plate glass timber sash and case windows. Non-traditional plate glass to ground floor. Grey slate. Coped gable and wallhead stacks.

Statement of Interest

This tenement building with its restrained, classical style forms an essential component of the planned streetscape of King Street. The classical style was to dominate the planned early nineteenth century city of Aberdeen and this is a good example of the genre. The channelled treatment at the entrance door and the slight decoration to the 1st storey windows are confirmation of the variants that were incorporated into the essential unity of the streetscape design. An early print of 1840 suggests that the ground floor was originally arcaded and it is likely that it would all have been channelled. The bold town planning which created Union Street and King Street was the defining gesture which allowed Aberdeen to develop from an contained medieval burgh to rational modern city. This importance is recognised in the B Group designation for this first section of King Street.

King Street developed after 1794, when a town council meeting asked the engineer Charles Abercrombie to find a way to connect the original steep, muddled Medieval streets of Aberdeen to the surrounding countryside. His plan was for two streets, one of which would run from Castlegate to the Denburn and the other which would run from the Castlegate to the North of the town. The latter was King Street. A competition for designs for this new street brought forward a design from Thomas Fletcher. This was to be a long classical façade, with a pedimented centrepiece and higher end blocks. This design was begun on the East side in 1805, with the creation of nos 8-10 (see separate listing). The idea of a standard, uniform terrace, however, was abandoned when negotiations had to be entered into with owners regarding the length of the frontages and the heights of the buildings. It was then decided to allow some variations between designs, whilst keeping to the essential classical style.

Part of B Group with 5 Castle Street, Nos 1-56 (inclusive nos) King Street and St Andrews Episcopal Cathedral.

Category changed from B to C(S), 2007.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q56625057

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.

Recommended Books

• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period property manual, victorian house manual 2 books collection set by ian rock
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)