Description

Early 19th century. 3-storey and attic Classical tenement block situated on corner site with 10 bays to King Street and 4 bays to West North Street. Rounded corner with 4-panel timber entrance door with semicircular fanlight. Grey granite ashlar, coursed rubble to rear. Round-arched openings to ground. Band course between ground and 1st storey. Piended attic dormers to Nos 83-97. No 97 with Public House with central entrance door with flanking square-headed openings with small pane glazing set within astragals. Consoled timber fascia above.

Predominantly 12-pane timber sash and case windows with curved glazing to corner bay. Broad ridge stacks. Grey slate. Multi-pane glazing pattern at ground to Nos 77 and 79. Some non-traditional windows at ground.

INTERIOR: largely modernised. Shops to ground with flats above (2006).

Statement of Interest

This building is prominent on its key corner site and may be by the renowned local architect John Smith. The curved corner and long classical façade create a strong building with significant visual impact that adds considerable character to this planned streetscape section of King Street. Shown partly on the Wood Map of 1828, the building has a restrained and elegant Classicism that is particularly well-suited to granite. 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.

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. The initial idea was for long, uniform terraces, but this was abandoned when negotiations had to be entered into with owners regarding the length of the frontages and the heights of the buildings.

This corner of West North Street and King Street was widened in the mid 1980s with the demolition of 4 tenement blocks and rebuilding of the current number 77 to provide this prominent corner building. A photograph from 1970 shows the previous building to have had a similar, but more elongated curved corner.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17775248

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

• 
  For the Record
• 
  Hertfordshire (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)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings