Description

Earlier 19th century (1800-1820). Tall and narrow 4-storey attic and basement, 4-bay commercial and residential building. Loanhead granite ashlar; cill course to 3rd floor. Public House to ground floor with unusually tall and narrow round-arched entrance flanked by large fixed-pane plate glass windows. Entrance to Kirkgate Court to far right bay (now main door to residential properties above). Pair of later flat-roofed dormers.

Regular 8-pane timber sash and case windows with horns to 1st and 2nd floors; smaller 4-pane openings to 3rd floor. Grey slate to steeply pitched roof; ashlar skews and skewputts; broad, corniced ashlar stacks; clay cans.

Statement of Interest

The building at Nos 16 and 18 Upperkirkgate is a significant part of the street's eclectic run of buildings along it's North side. The tall narrow proportions are unusual within the Aberdeen streetscape. The buildings that lined the S side of Upperkirkgate were cleared from the 1930's onwards as part of a programme of slum clearances, and eventually to allow room for the civic buildings of the St Nicholas House development. Upperkirkgate stands on the site of one of the city's many ancient gates, or 'ports'. Most of what is visible in Upperkirkgate derives from the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but much evidence of earlier structures of previous centuries has been built into the later fabric. The 'Kirkgate Bar' public house at 18 Upperkirkgate was the traditional location for the elected rector at the nearby Aberdeen University Student Union Building to buy all his supporters a drink.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q56625243

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

• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
• 
  Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability