Description

SEAFIELD HOUSE AND 1 CHROMATE LANE: 18th century. 4-bay, 2-storey and attic asymmetrical former town house of rectangular plan on sloping end of terrace site with flanking closes and gable to street. Harl-pointed upper gable and NW elevation, cement-rendered and lined SE elevation. Some margined windows.

SE (CHROMATE LANE) ELEVATION: asymmetrical, 4 bays (grouped 3-1), shop window at ground in bay to outer right, window above offset to left; 3-bay section, entrance door at ground in bay to right, blank at 1st floor in bay to outer left.

NE (COMMERCIAL STREET) ELEVATION: 2-bay near-symmetrical elevation, painted shopfront at ground with window at left and 6-panel, 2-leaf flush-beaded timber door with 4-pane fanlight above at right; regular fenestration at 1st and 2nd floors.

NW ELEVATION: asymmetrical, 2-leaf vertically-boarded timber door with 5-pane fanlight above centred at ground, blank bay at left, wide window at ground in bay to right.

3 CHROMATE LANE: early 19th century. 2-storey, 3-bay symmetrical house of rectangular plan on sloping end of terrace site with flanking closes. Harl-pointed rubble walls, margined windows with projecting cills.

SE (CHROMATE LANE) ELEVATION: modern timber entrance door centred at ground, flanking windows and regular fenestration at 1st floor.

SE ELEVATION: gable end with boarded opening and small square modern window to left at ground and 1st floors respectively.

NW ELEVATION: blank elevation except for modern 6-panel timber door with 5-pane fanlight centred at ground, and rubble-infilled window at 1st floor in bay to left, chamfered corner at ground to right.

Variety of glazing types; surviving timber sash and case windows predominantly plate glass and 4-pane patterns with 12-pane surviving at 1st floor of NW elevation. Purple-grey slate roof, harl-pointed apex stacks, coped with circular cans, ashlar and cement-rendered skew copes.

Statement of Interest

Chromate Lane was known for a period a Yate?s Kloss, because Francis Yates, cooper and slate merchant, had his workshop in the lane. He also owned Yate?s Lodberry below the street on part of which the Queen?s Hotel is built. The name Chromate Lane is derived from the discovery in 1817 of chromate of iron by Samuel Hibbert in Unst. A mill was erected below Greenfield House, the ore was crushed and the washings carried away by two burns to the sea at Bain?s Beach. Chromate Lane was very narrow from the E gable of the house immediately above Lochend House garden wall and downwards, but in the 1890s, was widened over four feet, the garden at the back of Lochend House being set back to permit this. At the lower end of this wall, demolished by the widening of the lane, stood "Adam?s House". Seafield House was formerly the town house of Ogilvy of Seafield in Yell. It is a rare survivor, and its gable end forms an essential part of the streetscape in Commercial Street, reflecting the traditional street pattern of this area.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17852003

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

• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6