Description

1805. 4-storey, 4-bay Classical tenement with altered commercial premises to ground. Grey granite ashlar, rubble to rear. Band course, cill courses, eaves cornice. 6-panel timber entrance door to far left with multi-pane glazed rectangular fanlight above. Off-centre deep-set timber and glass entrance door to commercial premises.

Predominantly 12-pane timber sash and case windows, plate glass to ground. Coped gable stacks.

Statement of Interest

Nos 8-10 King Street, with its restrained Classical style was the first tenement to be built on the main thoroughfare of King Street and forms an essential component of the planned streetscape. An early print of 1840 suggests that the ground floor was originally arcaded 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 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 and David Burn. This was to be a long classical façade, with a pedimented centrepiece and higher end blocks. This design was begun here in 1805 with nos 8-10, which is one storey higher than its neighbours to the North. 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.

Part of B Group with 5 Castle Street, Nos 1-56 (inclusive nos) King Street and St Andrews Episcopal Cathedral.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17770992

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

• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper
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  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
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  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
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  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)