Description

Circa 1790 with later alterations and additions. 2 storey with attic 3-bay rectangular-plan, symmetrical house built on ground falling to E. Harled with painted cement margins to openings.

S (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: pilastered and corniced doorpiece at ground in bay to centre; deep-set replacement timber panelled door with geometric overdoor light; window at 1st floor above. Window at each floor in bay to right; finialled gablet dormer window above. Window at each floor in bay to left; box dormer above.

W (SIDE) ELEVATION: 2-bay gabled wall. Window at each floor in each bay; extended tall gablehead stack above. Coped wall with boarded door set to left in wall connecting The Haven to 4 Alfred Street to right.

E (SIDE) ELEVATION: 2-bay gabled wall. Coal-cellar door set to left at basement. Window in each bay at 1st floor. Small attic window to gable shoulders; gablehead stack above.

2- and 4-pane timber sash and case windows. Roof: replaced grey slate; stone ridge; stone skews; small roof light to centre; harled coped stacks; predominantly uPVC rainwater goods with regular cast-iron supports beneath gutter.

INTERIOR: not seen, 1997.

Statement of Interest

The Haven was formerly the premises of the Orkney Hudson's Bay Company agents, David Geddes (1771-1812), George Geddes (1812-19) and John Rae (1818-36), father of Dr John Rae the Antarctic explorer. Lady Franklin lived here in 1851 during Dr Rae's search for the Franklin Expedition. It passed through several hands before its purchase by the Northern Lighthouse Board in 1937. It is now the home to the manager of the adjacent Lighthouse Depot, from which the mv Pole Star services the lighthouses of the North of Scotland, Orkney and Shetland. The harling to the principal (S) elevation was in the process of being replaced, July 1997.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17829087

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

• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)