History in Structure

30, 32 King Street, Aberdeen

A Category B Listed Building in Aberdeen, Aberdeen

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Coordinates

Latitude: 57.1492 / 57°8'57"N

Longitude: -2.0933 / 2°5'35"W

OS Eastings: 394454

OS Northings: 806483

OS Grid: NJ944064

Mapcode National: GBR SD4.L4

Mapcode Global: WH9QQ.TKDQ

Plus Code: 9C9V4WX4+MM

Entry Name: 30, 32 King Street, Aberdeen

Listing Name: 30 and 32 King Street

Listing Date: 12 January 1967

Category: B

Source: Historic Scotland

Source ID: 355208

Historic Scotland Designation Reference: LB20399

Building Class: Cultural

ID on this website: 200355208

Location: Aberdeen

County: Aberdeen

Town: Aberdeen

Electoral Ward: George St/Harbour

Traditional County: Aberdeenshire

Tagged with: Shop Tenement

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Description

Earlier 19th century. 3-storey 3-bay Classical tenement building with altered shops to ground. Grey granite ashlar, rubble to rear. Symmetrical shop front with round-arched central opening flanked by elliptical-arched openings. 4-pane timber entrance door to far right with narrow timber pilastered doorcase and semicircular astragalled fanlight above. Band course, cill courses, eaves cornice. Gabled stair well to rear.

12-pane timber sash and case windows to upper storeys. Grey slate. Coped gable 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. The building sits immediately to the North of St Andrews Cathedral (see separate listing) and within a row of similar classical buildings and is crucial to the visual appearance of the street. The bold town planning which created Union Street and King Street was the defining gesture which allowed Aberdeen to develop from a contained medieval burgh to a modern rational city.

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.

External Links

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