Description

18th century incorporating earlier fabric; later alterations. 2-storey and attic, L-plan, asymmetrical crowstepped gabled house (now divided) forming N side of square (Numbers 3 to 7, listed separately, completing S side), the pair ranged round flagstoned courtyard, off E Victoria Street; screen wall with arch forming courtyard entrance to W; W gable to street. Harled with cement dressings. Cement margins to some openings.

N ARM: S (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: irregular, 4-bay. Deep-set timber-panelled door with letterbox fanlight at ground in bay to centre; small window to left flanking; small window at 1st floor above. Window at each floor in bays to right. Window at ground in bay to left; non-aligned window at 1st floor above. N ELEVATION: irregular, 3-bay. Window at ground in bay offset to left of centre; non-aligned window at 1st floor above. Window at each floor in bay to outer left. Window at 1st floor in bay to right. W (VICTORIA STREET) ELEVATION: 2-bay. Window at each floor in each bay; attic windows above; gablehead stack.

E ARM: W (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: regular 2-bay. Boarded door at ground, set close to internal angle, in bay to left; window at 1st floor above. Window at each floor in bay to right. E (REAR) ELEVATION: full-height, central, pitched-roofed projection with gablehead stack. Window in each bay at 1st floor to 2-bay gabled E elevation of N arm to outer right; gablehead stack above.

Predominantly 12-pane timber sash and case windows. Traditional (replaced) graded stone tiled roof; stone ridge; harled, corniced gablehead stacks; ridge stack to N arm; decorative skewputt to SW angle (see notes); predominantly cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIORS: not seen, 1998.

Statement of Interest

Together with Nos 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 (see separate listing), Nos 1 and 2 Spence's Square form a small courtyard off Victoria Street. The houses to the rear of the square have 1st floor entrances with a linking walkway over a close which leads to the gardens behind. The complex has undergone an award-winning restoration by Orkney Islands Council which re-harled them and replaced the traditional graded stone tiles. Originally a single L-plan dwelling, Number 72 has subsequently been flatted. Its roadside gable bears a decorative skewputt depicting the face of a man in a flat Geneva hat and a ruff; he has been identified with a Rev Scott, minister of the Cathedral and resident here circa 1725.

Statutory address revised 2008. Previously listed as '72 Victoria Street, Spence's Square'.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17827385

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

• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)