Description

A MacMaster, refurbishment 1902, incorporating late 18th century fabric; dwellings modernised 1980: 18th century outbuilding. 4-storey, 3-bay Queen Anne style tenement with public house at ground. Polished red granite at ground with painted ashlar above impost level, ashlar with outer channelled pilaster strips above; brick stair tower and single storey wing to rear. Mutuled cornice over ground floor and as 3rd floor cill band. Segmental- and round-headed openings; raised, tabbed margins to 1st and 2nd floors; keystones, hoodmoulds, rounded stop-chamfered arrises to ground, and stone transoms and mullions.

S (HIGH STREET) ELEVATION: symmetrical above ground. Broad segmental-headed, decorative astragalled tripartite window with columnar mullions, panelled aprons and coloured, leaded glass panel below decorative keystone off-centre right; flanking round-headed doorways with similar keystones and deep-set 2-leaf timber doors below timber-blocked fanlights (each with extractor fan); pend entrance to outer left pilastered with decorative moulded pediment below elliptical keystoned oculus with painted small-pane glazing and deep-set panelled timber door. 1st and 2nd floors with small bipartite window to centre bay and flanking larger bipartites; outer pilaster strips with cartouche surmounted by putto mask and cornice. 3rd floor with small bipartite window at centre below decorative windowhead inscribed 'Victoria House established 1780, Refurbished 1902 by A MacMaster', and flanking hoodmoulded segmental-headed keystoned windows in gabled bays, outer pilaster strips with cavetto coping below scroll-moulded gable end.

8-pane glazing pattern in timber sash and case windows; small-pane glazing in fixed window at ground. Grey slates. Coped ashlar stacks with some cans and ashlar coped skews. Cast-iron downpipes with decorative rainwater hoppers.

INTERIOR: No 295A: public bar with original dado height ceramic tiles (tiles above installed 1990's), decorative cornice and ceiling; coloured glass with ship in roundel, Art Nouveau border and narrow coloured margin. Room to rear with open timber roof, boarded dado and mutuled timber fireplace.

POTTIE'S CLOSE OUTBUILDING: rubble outbuilding, former bothy/byre? (see Notes) with droved quoins; pantiles to W (asbestos to E) and ashlar coped skews. W elevation with broad doorway to right and blocked window to left.

BOUNDARY WALL: coped rubble boundary walls including lintel to rear probably dated 1786 with indecipherable initials to left.

Statement of Interest

The Pottie's Close outbuilding, described as a 'factory building' by KCS, is a rare survivor of a once prolific building type appearing on the rigs extending from the High Street. There is a similar example at 20 The Esplanade (listed separately). Betty Nicol's Bar was known formerly as the Victoriana, and 1980 modernisation of the flatted dwellings was carried out by the Link Housing Association.

The boundary walls to the rear include a dated lintel of 1786 with some indistinct initials to the left. The burgh survey notes that the rear boundary walls include some components of the former buildings which used to front Hill Place. It is possible that the lintel and boundary wall date from this period.

(List description and notes updated 2011 following further information on boundary wall.)

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17806084

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

• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)