1 and 3 Alma Place and 17 High Street, Laurencekirk, Laurencekirk, Aberdeenshire

Description

Dating from the earlier 19th century, probably around 1820, 1 and 3 Alma Place and 17 High Street is a two-storey and attic, six-bay, classical corner tenement with a shop at the ground floor and a bowed corner bay. The property is built in squared, coursed and cherry-caulked sandstone blocks with polished ashlar margins and quoins. The window openings have sandstone cills and there is a band course over the ground floor and an eaves course. The bowed corner has a decorative pediment.

The southwest (Alma Place) elevation has a pair of four-panelled, timber entrance doors with bipartite fanlights and pilastered door surrounds. There is a gable breaking the wallhead with a small window in the apex and a chimney stack above. There are two polygonal-roofed, canted dormer windows flanking this gable.

The bowed corner has a replacement uPVC and glazed entrance door with a fanlight above and is flanked by windows that are slightly larger than the other ground floor windows. The entrance and flanking windows have cornices on console brackets and there is a decorative metal bracket for shop signage above the entrance.

The property has a mixture of glazing patterns and window materials. The ground floor windows are all plate glass in timber frames. The first floors windows have a 12-pane glazing pattern in timber sash and case frames.

The piended roof is slated with straight ashlar skews and block skewputts. There are two tapered chimneystacks. The building has cast iron guttering.

The interior was partially seen in 2019 and has some 19th century decorative features. These include timber panelled doors with moulded architraves, a timber staircase with decorative cast iron balusters, plain and moulded cornicing and ceiling roses. There are timber window shutters to the first floor windows. The interior of number 17 High Street has a decorative cornice.

Historical development

In 1765 the new village of Laurencekirk was laid out on a linear plan and in 1779 it became a burgh of barony (Statistical Account, p.178). The buildings along the High Street were among the first buildings in the town and are shown on James Robertson's topographical map (1822) and John Thomson's map (1832). This includes a building shown at the corner of the High Street and what is now Alma Place. A row of buildings are not shown along Alma Place, but because of the scale of these early maps individual buildings are not depicted in detail. The property is first shown in detail on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map (surveyed 1864, published 1894). The style and construction of this building also indicates it is of an earlier 19th century date.

Later Ordnance Survey maps show that the footprint of the property remains largely unchanged from that shown on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map.

In the 19th century the ground floor corner unit (17 High Street) was a chemist's dispensary shop (Dundee Evening Telegraph, 1878) and continued to operate as a chemist throughout the 20th century, until around the 1980s (Aberdeen Press and Journal). The property now known as 1 Alma Place was attached to the chemist's business as accommodation and number 3 was at one time in use as a chemist store (Aberdeenshire Council Planning Portal, reference APP/2010/2436).

Since around 2010, 17 High Street has been in use as an office. 1 Alma Place is a flat occupying the first floor and attic. 3 Alma Place has most recently been a ground floor retail space and is currently unoccupied (2019).

Statement of Interest

1 and 3 Alma Place and 17 High Street is a representative and largely unaltered example of an earlier 19th century tenement and ground floor shop in a Scottish burgh.

The property is amongst the earliest buildings in Laurencekirk along the historic High Street and is a key building in the streetscape because of its corner location.

Its street elevation retains its classical proportions and has a high level of decorative stonework detailing.

Architectural interest:

Design

This property has a classically-proportioned street elevation with a high level of classical stonework features including bracketed cornices and pilastered doorpieces. Classical style town architecture became fashionable in the late 18th century, particularly in larger towns and cities such as Edinburgh. The influence of this type of architecture spread to smaller towns in Scotland as they began to expand and prosper by the early 19th century.

The additional architectural decoration is also notable. The building's bowed corner with the double scrolling pediment above is a particularly distinctive feature. The red-brown sandstone used is the local building material characteristic of Laurencekirk and the cherry caulked stonework is a distinctive regional building technique. The architect is unknown.

The exterior is largely unaltered and retains its classical style and stonework detailing, such as its cornicing on console brackets and pilaster door surrounds. The larger window openings fronting the High Street indicate this building has always been a shop. There have been small changes, such as the non-traditional replacement of the corner entrance door, and the glazing in the shop windows which has changed from that shown on a late-19th century photograph (which shows a central glazing bar).

The interior of the property has some typical 19th century timber and plasterwork features, including panelled doors, window shutters, cornicing and a timber staircase with cast-iron balusters. There are ceiling roses, and fireplaces which may be later replacements. The interior of 17 High Street has been remodelled and no shop fixtures or fittings remain to indicate its previous function as a chemist, but this is not unusual. It has ceiling cornicing, which is of a similar style to that seen in the flat above.

The relative lack of alteration to the street elevation, the well detailed stonework and the survival of its overall early-19th century character, that shows its former functional use, is of interest in listing terms.

Setting

This property is part of a group of earlier 19th century traditional burgh buildings, which includes 11 Alma Place (listed at C, LB43683), 4 to 6 Alma Place (the Alma Hotel) (listed at B, LB43643), and 13 to 15 High Street (listed at C, LB43682). It is located at the northeast end of the High Street and is a key building in the streetscape because of its corner position with its distinctive bowed corner bay and its high level of exterior architectural detailing.

Aerial images show the 18th century linear plan of the town is largely retained and several houses along the High Street have narrow, enclosed gardens. There has been a general expansion of the town mostly to the north of the High Street. The wider setting of this property has changed since that shown on the 2nd Edition Ordnance Survey map by the addition of later 20th century housing along Alma Terrace and 21st century housing to the southeast but this has not had a significant impact on the immediate historic setting of the building and the early 19th century group of buildings.

Historic interest:

Age and rarity

The older a building is, and the fewer of its type that survive, the more likely it is to be of special interest. Tenements with ground floor shops are a common building type and there are many surviving examples from the mid-19th century in Scottish burghs. Those that survive with a notable lack of exterior alteration are increasingly rare. While there has been a degree of change to the interior of the building and some later fabric to the exterior, the property is largely unaltered to the street elevation and it is a representative example of 19th century classical-style burgh architecture.

Social historical interest

Social historical interest is the way a building contributes to our understanding of how people lived in the past, and how our social and economic history is shown in a building and/or in its setting.

Tenements with shops are a very common building type and all have some social historical interest because they show how people lived and worked. While this property is a reminder of the historical and economic development of the town in the 19th century, there is no special interest under this heading.

Statutory address, category of listing changed from B to C and listed building record revised in 2019. Previously listed as '1 Alma Place and 17 High Street'.

External Links

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