Description

Alexander Skirving, 1889. 4-storey Renaissance
commercial building with domed pavilions to S corners.
Red sandstone ashlar with polished granite base course;
moulded channelling to ground floor; dentilled cornice
at ground, plain 1st floor cornice and main cornice.
S (WILSON STREET) ELEVATION: 11-bay with tripartite corner
feature (see below). Entrance at centre with polished
granite Corinthian columns, keystoned lintel, ornamental
frieze, modillioned cornice with crowning anthemions;
2-leaf panelled door. Subsidiary doorway in penultimate
bay to right, with consoled and corniced doorpiece with
Thomsonesque pediment. Windows in remaining bays.
"The Scottish Legal Life Assurance Society" carved on
frieze. 9 windows to each floor in 2-storey round-arched
arcade at 1st and 2nd floor, with fluted Ionic columns,
masque keystones and carved spandrels; outer bays
flanked by channelled pilaster; Thomsonesque detailed
pediments to 1st floor windows, and to aedicule at
centre; paterae in frieze. 3rd floor windows with
pilastered ingoes; shell ornaments above centre and
outer bays. Lion and unicorn armorial breaking coped
parapet at centre. Domed pavilion to outer right bay
(SE), with fluted columns, pilasters and anthemioned
cornice.
CORNER (SW): tripartite; chamfered at ground with
pilastered jambs; bowed above from 1st and 4th
pavilioned floor, pilastered to 1st and 2nd floors, with
"Scottish Legal Buildings" incised on frieze. Copper
cupola with ball finial and Baroque oculus; bowed
centrepiece flanked by columned and pilastered
pedimented bays.
W (VIRGINIA STREET) ELEVATION: 10-bay. Simplification of
Wilson Street elevation with broad pediment over central
bays.
REAR ELEVATION: line of former attached building evident
with yellow bricks above; red brick classical warehouse
adjoined at ground.
Plate-glass glazing pattern to sash and case windows
predominating, with some small-pane to arched windows
and some 2-pane lower panels.

Statement of Interest

Important pioneer as earliest design in red sandstone

for such a large commercial edifice. Distinct

references to Alexander Thomson motifs. Possibly raised

soon after construction, Dean of Guild petition shows

building 1-storey lower with a pointed dome also does

not show N section of Virginia Street, but no subsequent

petitions have been found and it may be that there was

a variation to the scheme in the course of construction

for which either no permission was granted or the

records have been misplaced.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17795198

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

• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
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  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)