Description

Possilby John Smith, earlier 19th century. 3-storey and attic 9-bay tenement building with round-arched openings to ground. Grey granite ashlar, rubble to rear. Band course above ground floor, cill courses, eaves cornice. Piended dormers. 6-panel timber entrance doors with astragalled fanlights above. Round arched stair windows to rear.

Predominately 12- and 4-pane timber sash and case windows. Multi-pane glazing pattern to ground. Coped gable stacks.

Statement of Interest

This row of tenement buildings with its restrained, classical style forms an essential component of the planned streetscape of King Street. The classical style was to dominate the planned early nineteenth century city of Aberdeen and this is a good example of the genre. This is a particularly good example as the round arched openings to the ground floor have been retained and many of them have a traditional multi-pane glazing pattern. The bold town planning which created Union Street and King Street was the defining gesture which allowed Aberdeen to develop from a contained medieval burgh to a modern rational 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. 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 result is a street which shows the character of diversity within uniformity.

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 Q17775333

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

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  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
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  Old House Handbook 2 Books Bundle Collection (Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair,Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability)
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  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
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  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
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  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
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  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)