Description

Earlier 18th century. 2-storey and attic, 2-bay building distinguished by rare survival of gable end facing street. Wet-dash harl to upper levels with raised cills. Later polished ashlar shopfront to ground.

12-pane stained timber sash and case windows to 1st floor; 4-pane casement windows to attic; grey slate; coped wall-head gable stack; narrow skews. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: Comprehensively modernised (seen 2006).

Statement of Interest

No 42 is the only remaining property on Upperkirkgate which retains the once-typical gable facing the street in the manner of the medieval 'burgage'. It is therefore a rare survival and a significant part of the streetscape. 'Burgage' plots encorporated the need to still cultivate land within the town and generally related to the width of the house, with long plots running some distance from the back of the houses. The original entrance to No 42 would have been from the East, either through a pend or, if separated from its neighbour, by way of a garden.

Upperkirkgate stands on the site of one of the city's many ancient gates, or 'ports'. However, 'gate' in this instance may have formerly been 'gait' meaning walk or way. Most of what is visible in Upperkirkgate derives from the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but much evidence of earlier structures of previous centuries has been built into the later fabric. The buildings that lined the S side of Upperkirkgate were cleared from the 1930's onwards as part of a programme of slum clearances, and eventually to allow room for the civic buildings of the St Nicholas House development.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q56625247

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

• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6