Description

Mid 19th century. 3-storey and attic 4 x 3-bay classical tenement building with shops to ground, situated on corner at critical city centre junction. Grey granite ashlar. Double-height, round-arched arcaded ground floor with deep cornice above. Cill course to 1st storey with advaced apron panels. Deep eaves cornice. Central Corinthian columed doorpiece (now window, 2006) to Union Street (N). Raised moulded architraves to window openings, brackettted cills to 2nd storey. Mansard roof with regularly spaced round-arched dormers.

Predominantly plate glass timber sash and case windows to upper storeys. Plate glass to shops. Central corniced, consoled wallhead stack to Market Street.

Statement of Interest

This well-detailed building is unusual in Union Street as it retains a double-height arcaded ground floor. This double-height arcading is a particularly rare variant in the city centre and is a significant part of the Union Street streetscape. The architraved openings set it apart from other, simpler buildings which make up the character of the street.

Planned as the major thoroughfare in an increasingly wealthy and confident city, Union Street was a bold and confident project which required major engineering to complete. The buildings which aligned the street had to reflect this sense of grandeur and confidence as the visual appearance of the street was of the utmost importance. Market Street was designed in 1840 by Archibald Simpson to provide a link between the main street of Union Street and the expanding Harbour, which was providing much trade and wealth for the city. The street cleared a notorious slum area of the city called Putachieside. It took its name from a covered indoor market, designed by Archibald Simpson in 1842, but which subsequently burnt down in 1882. Rebuilt in 1884, the market was replaced by a British Home Stores extension in 1971.

The building functioned as The National Bank of Scotland, then the Royal Bank of Scotland and is currently commercial premises.

Union Street was developed after 1794, when a town council meeting asked the engineer Charles Abercrombie to find a way to connect the original steep, haphazard network of 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 former became Union Street. This was a particularly difficult project to complete as the street had to cut through St Katherine's Hill at the East end and be built on a series of arches culminating with a large bridge at the Denburn. The street was to be lined with classical buildings, but the initial idea of having a long, uniform classical design that each new house would have to conform to was abandoned, as it was realised that different purchasers would require some control over the design Some variety was therefore conceded.

Part of B Group with Nos 5-53, 67-89, 95-139, 143-153 (odd nos) Union Street, Nos 26-42, 46-62, 78-106, 114-144 (even nos) Union Street and St Nicholas Churchyard.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17776893

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

• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)