Description

Circa 1817. 2-storey and attic over concealed basement 6-bay tenement (Nos 2-6) with single storey and attic gabled lodberries projecting to N at E and at W (No 8), adjacent to Copeland?s Pier and Stout?s Piers respectively, flagged courtyard between, giving U-plan. Random rubble walls with stugged and droved sandstone dressings.

S (COMMERCIAL STREET) ELEVATION: 6 bays, grouped 3-3, left group with door in centre bay at ground, right group with door in centre bay at ground and common entrance at ground to left. Modern concrete steps. Regular fenestration at 1st floor.

N (REAR) ELEVATION: irregularly fenestrated with lodberries advanced at outer left and right. Slate-hung timber box dormers breaking eaves in bays flanking centre and (bipartite) in bay to outer left.

E ELEVATION: 2-bay gable end of tenement, blank bay at left, windows at all floors (except 1st) in bay to right, vertically-boarded timber shutter to window at ground, modern glazing at attic.

W ELEVATION: blank gable, except for window to attic in bay at left.

COPELAND?S (E) LODBERRY AND PIER: stugged and coursed rubble slipway with parapet and cobbled surface to E. E elevation; 3 bays, pend with vertically-boarded timber shutter to 12-pane timber sash and case window above in 2-storey bay to left, right bays advanced, blank bay to left, single window in bay to right. N gable; single door to left at upper floor, cantilevered balcony with flagpole and steel railing clasping corner. W (courtyard elevation) sliding door with glazed upper in bay to left at ground floor, metal stair to modern door in dormerhead breaking eaves in bay to right. Timber slate-hung box dormer with 12-pane timber sash and case window at left.

STOUT?S LODBERRY AND PIER: sloping pier to W, cobbled surface with steps at sea. W elevation; partially-infilled window with iron bars to left, infilled door at right; modern wall extending to right, enclosing flagged ramp to entrance in partially-exposed S gable. N gable;

2 windows in gablehead only. E (courtyard elevation) modern metal stair to door in dormerhead breaking eaves in bay to right, 4-pane fixed-light (former door) centred at ground.

Timber sash and case windows, plate glass at 1st floor of principal elevation of No 2, modern 4-pane elsewhere. Purple-grey slate roof with cast-iron gutters and downpipes. Coped multi-flue stacks with circular cans at principal gables and centring ridge. Coped 2-flue apex stacks with circular cans to lodberries. Cement-rendered skew copes with corbelled skewputts at gables, lead covered skew copes at party-wall.

SEA WALL: random rubble wall with irregular openings (some infilled) bounding N side of courtyard.

Statement of Interest

James Copeland was an Orcadian who farmed the island of Noss very successfully. He retired to Lerwick where he built his own pier about 1817, along with the these houses. They were initially restored in 1965 by the Council as part of their post-war house-building program, and again by Richard Gibson circa 1985. The Palladian form of the tenement with flanking lodberries presents an impressive elevation to the sea, as well as being an essential part of the fabric of Commercial Street. An old photograph shows the windows to be glazed with 12-pane timber sash and case windows.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17851973

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

• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)