5, Union Terrace

This is a substantial house, dating to around 1740-60, with evidence of an earlier building incorporated into its structure. The front elevation is of painted Flemish bond brick on stone rubble footings, while the rear elevation is partly of local volcanic trap rubble, with one wing plastered and another of volcanic trap ashlar, and a third of rubble. The roof is slate, with end stacks and a lateral stack to the rear wing, which has brick shafts.

The house follows an L-shaped plan. The main block is a single depth, containing two rooms, with a central entrance leading into a passage. A rear left service wing provides additional space. The front has a symmetrical three-bay design with deep, boxed eaves. The central entrance is a six-panel door set within an 18th-century doorcase, featuring reeded pilasters and an entablature with a frieze of mutules and lozenges, supported by moulded brackets beneath the cornice. Flanking the door are probably mid-19th century canted bay windows, each with a hipped roof and 4-pane sashes in the centre, and 2-pane sashes in the outer lights. Lower timber windows, possibly 18th century and re-used, are situated beneath the bay windows, acting as cellar vents or to ventilate the floors; they are fitted with strap hinges and lattice iron grilles. The first floor has three early 18th-century 12-pane sashes with segmental heads and flush frames, and three 19th-century windows with segmental heads, glazed with 2-light casements, two panes per light. The rear elevation incorporates various 20th-century timber windows, including small-pane sashes.

Inside, several 18th-century features remain, including Italian marble ground floor chimney pieces, a timber eared chimney piece on the first floor, plaster cornices, original joinery such as skirtings, fielded panel doors, doorcases with masons' mitres, 2-panel doors, fitted cupboards, and a reeded doorcase with rosettes to the right-hand ground floor room. A good 18th-century dog-leg staircase rises from the entrance passage; its features include a flat moulded handrail and turned balusters. Stripping away plaster from the end wall of the service wing revealed a section of ashlar volcanic stone rubble adjacent to a small clom oven. The ashlar work suggests a possible 16th or 17th-century origin for this section. This is a well-preserved 18th-century house, forming part of a row of Georgian houses on Union Terrace.