Hamilton School, 55 Queen's Road, Aberdeen

The Hamilton School, located at 55 Queen’s Road, Aberdeen, was designed by Marshall Mackenzie and built in 1898. Later additions and alterations have been made to the building. It is a two-storey structure with a basement and attic, originally conceived as a traditional three-bay villa.

The north-west elevation, the principal facade, presents a symmetrical design. It is constructed from finely finished, tooled coursed pink granite ashlar to the margins, while the remainder uses Aberdeen bond rubble. The basement and ground floor feature tripartite windows, while the first floor has regular fenestration. A central architraved doorway leads to a panelled timber door with oval glazed upper panels; four stone steps lead to the door, flanked by iron railings.

The south-west elevation is partially gabled, and connects to the building at 57 Queen's Road at both ground and basement levels. A simple lean-to oriel window sits below the wallhead. The south-east elevation is asymmetrical, featuring a full basement and a central basement addition topped by a ground-floor lean-to conservatory. A two-storey lean-to addition is adjacent to the left bay, while the bay to the right has regular openings on all floors. A wallhead stack flue projects through the eaves between the centre and left bays. Dormers are varied across the attic floor. To the north-east elevation, a part-gabled design includes a piend-roofed ground-floor addition and a first-floor window above.

The windows are predominantly timber sash and case, with plate glass lower sashes and small-pane upper sashes. Some windows to the rear are four-pane. The roof is covered in grey slate, with lead ridges. Corniced gablehead and wallhead stacks are topped with octagonal and circular cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods are visible.

The interior remains largely intact, retaining many original mouldings, cornices, architraves, wall and ceiling plasterwork. A decoratively glazed inner door with a fanlight is present, along with an ionic pilastered hallway featuring a rib-vaulted roof. The principal ground-floor room has panelling, neo-classical plasterwork on the ceiling, and a surviving fire surround. The staircase and balusters are also still in place.

The property is enclosed by corniced, square-plan, rough-faced granite gatepiers that are shared with adjacent properties. Low coped walls with later addition railings lie between the gatepiers, while granite and brick coped rubble walls form the remainder of the boundary.