Description

Earlier 19th century. 3-storey and attic, 7-bay Classical tenement building with shops to ground. Grey granite ashlar. Band course above ground floor, cill courses, eaves cornice, blocking course. Round or segmental-arched openings to ground. Piended dormers. Some 6-panel timber entrance doors with astragalled semicircular fanlights above.

Predominantly 12-pane timber sash and case windows to upper storeys. Ground floor windows with fanlight glazing. Grey slate. Coped gable stacks.

INTERIOR: Stone spiral stair with decorative cast-iron and timber balustrade to No 21. 4-panel 2-leaf timber entrance doors to flats with glazed fanlights and side lights. Some flats retain mostly original room plans. Some good decorative plaster cornicing. Some 6-panel timber doors and decorative architraves. Ground floor largely altered.

Statement of Interest

B Group with 5 Castle Street, Nos 1-56 King Street and St Andrews Episcopal Cathedral.

This tenement building with its restrained, Classical style forms an essential component of the planned streetscape of King Street. It retains its original arched openings on the ground floor. Situated on the Southern section of King Street and in a run of distinguished buildings (nos, 7,9 and 27, 29 and 31; see separate listings) the building adds significant character to the street. The bold town planning which created Union Street and King Street was the defining gesture which allowed Aberdeen to develop from an contained medieval burgh to a rational modern city. This importance is recognised in the B Group designation for this first section of King Street.

King Street developed after 1794, when a town council meeting asked the engineer Charles Abercrombie to find a way to connect the original steep, muddled Medieval streets of Aberdeen to the surrounding countryside. His plan was for two streets, one of which would run from Castlegate to the Denburn and the other which would run from the Castlegate to the North of the town. The latter was King Street. A competition for designs for this new street brought forward a design from Thomas Fletcher. This was to be a long classical façade, with a pedimented centrepiece and higher end blocks. This design was begun on the East side in 1805, with the creation of nos 8-10 (see separate listing). The idea of a standard, uniform terrace, however, was abandoned when negotiations had to be entered into with owners regarding the length of the frontages and the heights of the buildings. It was then decided to allow some variations between designs, whilst keeping to the essential classical style. The West side, on which these buildings are situated was to have followed a similar, uniform design, but again, this was abandoned to a more diverse collection of frontages, all within the classical style.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17770975

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

• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)