Government Offices, 27-29 King Street, Aberdeen

The building at 27-29 King Street, Aberdeen, is a substantial Classical building begun in 1818 and completed in stages through 1840. Initially designed and constructed as three separate buildings – a Medico-Chirurgical Hall (Nos 29), County Records Office (No 27), and a private townhouse (No 31) – they now form a visually unified entity.

The 2-storey and basement structure is predominantly grey granite ashlar to the front (east) elevation, with rubble to the rear. Architectural detailing includes base and band courses, a cill course, a deep eaves cornice, a blocking course, and a balustraded parapet to the far left. Windows are deeply set, with some ground-floor windows featuring aprons and segmental arches to the left side. There are primarily 12 and 15-pane timber sash and case windows, topped by grey slate roofing with coped gable stacks. Cast iron decorative railings, including a stair rail and gates, front the building along King Street.

No. 29, designed by Archibald Simpson between 1818 and 1820, presents a symmetrical 3-bay facade featuring a giant tetrastyle Ionic portico with shallow steps and giant Doric pilasters. A central timber entrance door is set within a simple moulded granite architrave.

No. 27, designed by John Smith between 1822 and 1823, is asymmetrical, originally housing the County Records Office. It comprises two physically linked sections with a recessed 3-bay section and a single-storey flat-roofed entrance porch with a 4-panel timber door, a round-arched doorway, and a semicircular fanlight. Advanced end bays incorporate flanking pilasters; a central ground-floor window is adorned with a consoled bracket. A single-storey arched opening resides on the left side.

No. 31, dating to circa 1840, is an asymmetrical 3-bay townhouse where the staircase overhangs the basement at the left entrance. It features a 4-panel timber entrance door with a rectangular coloured glass fanlight above, and a pair of piended dormers. A tall round arched stair window is visible at the rear.

Internally, the original room layouts are largely intact in Nos. 27 and 31. Features include 4-panel timber doors, a dog-leg stair in the entrance hall of No. 27 with dentilled cornicing and simple fire surrounds on the upper floor. No. 29 has decorative cast iron balustrades to its staircases and Corinthian columns within the hall. The basement contains barrel-vaulted rooms and Nos. 27 and 29 are connected internally. No. 31 features a good decorative scheme, a ground-floor theatre, an arcaded hallway, a stained-glass stair window, geometric floor tiles in the entrance hall, and some excellent decorative ceiling and cornice plasterwork in the hall and drawing room, complemented by deep decorative skirting.