Description

1906. 3-storey, 3-bay tenement with chamfered corner bay to W and 2-bay angled E elevation. Renaissance detailing to stugged squared and snecked sandstone principal elevations with polished ashlar dressings; harl-pointed stugged rubble rear elevation. Base course, cill courses at all floors, corniced shopfront, 2nd floor, and eaves. Wallhead raised to scroll-flanked corniced parapets at angled end elevations.

S (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: near-symmetrical, with additional chamfered corner bay to left. Tenement door centred at ground flanked by panelled pilasters with paired brackets at frieze and segmental pediments over cornice. Tripartite windows at 1st and 2nd floors above, latter corniced, rising into raised and corniced parapet with carved panels and pyramidal finials. Bipartite windows at 1st and 2nd floor in bay to left. Chamfered corner bay blank at ground, corniced window at 2nd floor rising into raised and corniced wallhead.

E ELEVATION: 6-panel, 2-leaf timber shop door with plate glass fanlight at ground adjacent to corner, strip pilasters flanking, matching those of S elevation, 2-pane timber fixed-light to shop window at ground in bay to right; tripartite windows at floors above, corniced parapet at eaves surmounted at right by corniced pediment with circlet in tympanum.

N (REAR) ELEVATION: irregularly fenestrated, 3 wallhead stacks and

2 gabled dormers breaking eaves.

Timber sash and case windows, predominantly with 2-pane lower sashes and 6-pane uppers. Purple-grey slate roof with red ridge tiles and cast-iron gutters and downpipes. Stugged and coped apex stack with circular cans to W gable.

Statement of Interest

In 1906, Mr George Leslie of Laxfirth bought the premises known as Victoria Wharf (formerly owned by John Robertson) and had the block rebuilt as the Ellesmere Buildings. This is a building of distinctive character in a prominent site turning the corner from the Esplanade to the Market Cross, therefore making an essential contribution to the streetscape of the harbour.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77770658

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

• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)