Unicorn House, 62-63 Dock Street, Dundee, Dundee, Dundee

Entry Name: Unicorn House, 62-63 Dock Street, Dundee

Listing Name: 62, 63 Dock Street, 15 and 17 Candle Lane, Unicorn House, Former Sailors' Home and Chapel

Listing Date: 30 March 1994

Category: B

Source: Historic Scotland

Source ID: 361345

Historic Scotland Designation Reference: LB25173

Building Class: Cultural

Also known as: Dundee, 62-63 Dock Street, Unicorn House

ID on this website: 200361345

Location: Dundee

County: Dundee

Town: Dundee

Electoral Ward: Maryfield

Traditional County: Angus

Tagged with: Hostel

Description

David MacLaren (Ireland and MacLaren), dated 1881. 5-storey with domed corner turret, L-plan, freestyle former sailors' home on prominent corner site. Stugged ashlar sandstone, channelled to 1st floor, smooth dressings, concealed grey slate roof, flattened pyramidal roof over stairwell with flagpole and decorative iron parapet. Corniced shopfronts to ground floor with cast-iron columns and shouldered windows, angle pilasters supporting consoles; cill and lintel band to 1st floor, cill band to 3rd floor, wallhead frieze depicting names of famous sailors, consoled and dentilled parapet. Bi- and tripartite keystoned round-headed windows with polished Peterhead granite mullions

to 1st floor, segmental at oriel and angle, segmental and margined at 2nd floor with panelled aprons, angled to 3rd, timber sash and case frames, 2-pane to 1st floor, 8-pane to 2nd and 3rd, 4-pane to 4th; angle splayed to ground floor, canted to 1st and 2nd, segmental to 3rd and 4th; rectangular cast-iron rainwater goods.

DOCK STREET ELEVATION: prominent round-headed pilastered doorpiece to centre with mask keystone (Neptune?), Peterhead granite anta with decorative capitals, diaper-work at intrados and spandrels, 2-leaf cast-iron gates with sunburst motif 'fanlight' and lettering 'SAILORS' HOME', decorative consoles supporting parapet incorporating base of canted 1st floor oriel, 3-bay door-to-centre shopfront to left, 2-bay shopfront to right, altered shop door to angle at far right, datestone and cartouche above flanked by griffins supporting window above; tripartite and bipartite windows flanking oriel at 1st floor, tripartite to angle at right, windows to 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors arranged from left to right tripartite, bipartite, bipartite, tripartite; segmental pediment at parapet over relief depicting globe flanked by navigators, coped stacks to left and right rising from parapet; round angle tower with windows and corbelled parapet, leaded dome roof with lantern.

CANDLE LANE ELEVATION: 3-bay shopfront to ground floor left, bipartite to 1st floor flanked by single windows, 4 windows to 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors; 6 bays to right with windows at each floor similar to those at Dock Street elevation.

Chapel to far right: 3-bay gable, stugged sandstone ashlar, grey slate roof. Door to centre with round-headed overdoor inscribed 'SEAMEN'S CHAPEL', paired round-headed panels to left and right, large tripartite round-headed gallery window above, ashlar-coped skews with anchor relief at apex; right return elevation, blank rubble with red brick raised wallhead pertaining to later, now demolished building.

INTERIOR: Home; largely unaltered, scale and platt staircase with decorative cast-iron panel balusters and Jacobean style newel posts, round-headed niches at landings, some decorative plaster cornices. Chapel; derelict, but panelled gallery remains.

Statement of Interest

The names Nelson, Cook, Blake, Wood, Duncan, Dibdin and Napier appear at the wallhead frieze. The building cost about ?12,000 and is a significant part of Dundee's maritime history, reflecting concern for the social and moral welfare of sailors. The cast-iron sunburst motif is perhaps modelled on that in the famous Sailors' Home in Liverpool (demolished). A Tariff card of the 1920s states that use by sailors waned after the 1st World War, and that accommodation was now also provided for 'Commercial Travellers, Chauffeurs, Transport Drivers, Soldiers, Cyclists and Holiday-makers'. There were 34 single and 11 twin bedded rooms, 8 bathrooms, hot and cold water and electric light. It is now (1994) used as a hostel; the chapel is in a dilapidated condition.

External Links

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