Gatepiers And Railings, 4 Queen's Gardens Including Boundary Wall, Queen's Road, Aberdeen

Gatepiers and Railings, 4 Queen's Gardens, Queen's Road, Aberdeen

A prestigious 28-bay residential terrace comprising pairs and groups of 2 and 3-storey townhouses, with basement and attic storeys, some rising to double attic height. The building was developed in phases: the central pavilion and outer terminal pavilions were designed by Ellis & Wilson (1884-86 and 1893), while the link blocks connecting them date from circa 1880 and are attributed to J Russell Mackenzie.

The principal south-west elevation is near-symmetrical and highly articulated. The centrepiece is a 4-bay central pavilion (Nos 6 and 7), formed by a mirrored pair of 2-bay houses with symmetrical fenestration and central ground-floor doorways reached by stone steps with railings. These lead to glazed timber doors with tall letterbox fanlights. The pavilion features 3-light canted windows through the basement, ground and 1st floors of its flanking bays, with tripartite rectangular dormer windows to the attic floor. Flanking this pavilion on either side are 9-bay link blocks (circa 1880, Nos 3-6 and 8-10), each comprising three 3-bay houses. These blocks display regular fenestration to the basement floor, ground-floor doorways in the outer bays, and a continuous decorative ironwork balcony between the ground and 1st floors. Beyond these, terminal pavilions (Nos 2 and 11) form 2-bay asymmetrical houses symmetrically placed, each with an inner ground-floor doorway reached by stone steps with railings. The terminal pavilions are distinguished by gableted stone dormers set in the eaves blocking course, with segmental-arched windows pilastered with keystone detail and triangular finials. An outer pavilion (No 1) adjoins the eastern terminal pavilion, featuring a 5-light rectangular-plan canted window through the basement, ground and 1st floors forming a balcony to the attic floor with balustraded parapet, and a Venetian-style pilastered tripartite dormer window to the attic floor with an iron finial behind.

The building is constructed of tooled coursed granite ashlar to the principal elevations, with rubble to the remainder. The ashlar is finely finished to margins with contrasting pale grey long and short dressings to the link blocks. The half-sunken basement floor is enclosed by railings, with a base course and chamfered reveals to the windows. The principal 1st-floor windows are basket-arched. An eaves course and cornice run across the facades, with pilastered and gableted segmental-arched timber dormers serving the attic floor.

The north-east elevation is gabled and asymmetrical with 2 bays. It features a canted window through the ground and 1st floors of the right bay, and a canted block advanced through the ground and 1st floors to the left with decoratively glazed windows to its outer facets. A segmental-arched window is centred in the gablehead at attic level, with a bracketed projecting cill bearing keystone detail. Twin gablehead stacks are topped with octagonal cans, and a narrow band course along the base is stepped up to left and right with roundel and scroll ornament, with a diminutive pediment positioned between the stacks.

The north-west elevation exhibits a variety of single and 2-storey additions with canted windows and oriels, irregular fenestration and doorways to the basement, ground and 1st floors, and predominantly piend-roofed rectangular dormers to the attic floor with skylights to the upper attic.

The south-east elevation is gabled with a single opening at the centre of the ground floor.

Windows throughout are predominantly 2-pane timber sash and case, though replacement windows have been installed to the attic floor of No 9 and the 1st floor of No 10. The roof is covered in grey slate mansard style with lead ridges, coped stone skews, and coped gablehead and ridge stacks. Cast-iron rainwater goods are installed throughout.

The setting includes gatepiers and boundary walls. Low coped rough-faced granite boundary walls enclose the gardens and road to the south-east. A pair of square-plan corniced gatepiers stands to the outer left, with a further pair of square-plan gatepiers flanked by quadrant walls to the outer right. Ironwork railings enclose the basement and flank the steps to the south-east elevation. Brick and granite coped boundary walls form the remainder of the perimeter.

The interiors have not been recorded.