63 Hamilton Place, Aberdeen

63 Hamilton Place, Aberdeen

This is a two-storey villa with basement and attic, designed by Pirie and Clyne in 1886 and built by John Morgan. The house follows a rectangular plan with two bays and is constructed of coursed, rough-faced grey granite with finely finished margins to the principal elevation; the remainder is built in Aberdeen bond granite rubble. Dark grey granite forms the base course, with ground floor cill course, moulded first floor cill course, and eaves course providing definition to the facades.

The principal elevation faces north-west and is asymmetrical in composition. To the left of the ground floor stands a doorway with decoratively stop-chamfered jambs and a pilastered panelled timber door, flanked by glazed panels and a letterbox fanlight. Above this, the first floor features a decoratively shouldered tripartite window. To the right, a three-light canted window rises through both ground and first floors of a gabled bay, which forms a balcony at attic floor level. Within the gablehead of the attic floor sits a round-arched window with deeply chamfered reveals. A tiny stained glass quatrefoil window appears at the outer left of the ground floor, with an angle turret swept up at first floor above it, containing a single window. The turret is topped by a conical fishscale roof with a spherical lead finial. A wall extension at the outer left of the ground floor forms a shouldered doorway providing access to the rear of the house.

The south-west elevation is gabled and symmetrical, with pairs of windows to the centre of both ground and first floors.

The south-east elevation is near-symmetrical. A bipartite window sits to the left of the ground floor, flanked to the right by two single windows; the first floor has three regularly placed windows. A canted dormer sits to the left of the attic floor, with a piend-roofed rectangular dormer to the right.

The north-east elevation is asymmetrical, featuring a panelled timber door with glazed upper panel positioned off-centre to the left of the ground floor, flanked by a small window. A lean-to addition flanks to the right, with paired stair windows between the ground and first floors and between the first and attic floors.

Windows throughout are predominantly two-pane timber sash and case. The roof is grey slate with lead ridge, stone skews with blocked skewputts, and coped gablehead stacks with octagonal cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods complete the external detailing.

The interior is particularly fine. Much original cornicing, skirting boards, dados and panelled timber doors survive. The inner door features particularly fine etched glass panels with Greek and Egyptian motifs. Foliate cornices and fine carved timber fireplaces survive in the principal rooms. A decoratively moulded ceiling at ground floor level is accompanied by patterned wallpaper with sunflower paterae above and below the dado. Elongated colonnettes appear at the angles of the bay windows. The staircase is sharply twisted with distinctively turned balusters, lit by a floreate stained glass window between the ground and first floors. A fine stained glass window lights the attic floor.

The boundary treatment comprises low rough-faced pink Aberdeen bond granite walls to the north and east with contrasting grey snecking and coping. A gatepier and wall to the north-west are shared with Whitehill Bowling Green Wall (listed separately). The north-east boundary features a decorative iron gate flanked to the left, on Whitehall Road, by a decorative pier: a grey granite shaft swept up from a plinth with a rough-faced pink granite neck surmounted by a scrolled cap. A rubble wall to the east and south has granite and semi-circular brick coping, with a boarded timber gate to the east flanked by decoratively gableted walls. A gate accesses the south-east boundary.