49-51 Victoria Street Including Boundary Wall, Aberdeen

49-51 Victoria Street Including Boundary Wall, Aberdeen

This is a substantial two-storey terrace with attic accommodation, designed by Archibald Simpson and begun around 1843. The terrace comprises 46 bays arranged as a variety of two-bay, three-bay and four-bay individual houses. It is built of coursed granite rubble with finely finished margins; Number 39 is harled with finely finished margins. A base course runs along the ground floor, which features pilastered timber doorways with panelled timber doors and a variety of fanlights, including some with letterboxes, two-pane glazing, and semi-circular glazing bars. Projecting cills are present to the ground and first floors. Panelled aprons are found to Numbers 23, 33 and 35. A dividing band course runs across Numbers 43-59. An eaves course frames the roofline, which features predominantly canted piend-roofed dormers. The roof is covered in graded grey slate with a lead ridge. Stone skews with blocked skewputts are present, and coped gablehead and ridge stacks carry circular and octagonal cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods complete the external detailing.

The principal elevation to the southwest comprises houses of varying plan. Numbers 21 and 23 are arranged symmetrically as a three-bay composition, with a pilastered doorpiece and corniced entablature centred on the ground floor, flanked by windows, regular fenestration to the first floor, and two dormers to the attic. Numbers 25, 27, 29, 31, 39, 41 and 59 are asymmetrical two-bay units, each with a doorway to the right of the ground floor flanked by a window to the left, and a single window occupying the left-hand bay; the first floor shows regular fenestration and the attic floor has two canted windows. Numbers 33 and 35 form a near-symmetrical five-bay composition with a window at the centre of the ground floor, doorways flanking this to each side, windows to the outer bays, regular first-floor fenestration, and four gableted timber tripartite windows to the attic floor. Number 37 is symmetrical and four-bay, with a central doorway flanked by single windows and windows to the flanking bays at ground level, regular fenestration to the first floor, and a modern skylight to the centre of the attic floor flanked by dormers. Number 43, which was formerly two two-bay houses, is asymmetrical and four-bay; its doorway is positioned in the penultimate bay to the left of the ground floor, flanked to the left by a window, with regular fenestration to the remaining bays and to the first floor, and four dormers to the attic floor. Numbers 45 and 57 are two-bay and asymmetrical, with doorways to the left of the ground floor flanked to the right by windows, single windows to the right-hand bays at ground level, regular first-floor fenestration, and two dormers to the attic. Numbers 47, 49 and 51 are asymmetrical two-bay units, each with a ground-floor doorway flanked by a single window, regular first-floor fenestration, and single or paired dormers to the attic floor. Numbers 53 and 53a are asymmetrical three-bay, with two doorways to the right of the ground floor flanked by two windows to the left, regular first-floor fenestration, and two dormers to the attic. Number 55 is asymmetrical and three-bay, with a doorway to the right of the ground floor and windows to the flanking bays to the left, regular first-floor fenestration, and two dormers to the attic floor.

The southeast elevation is gabled. Number 21 has a doorway to the right of the ground floor, flanked to the left by a window, with two windows above.

The northeast elevation displays a variety of door and window openings and additions, with canted and rectangular dormers to the attic floor.

The northwest elevation, facing Skene Street, is asymmetrical and three-bay in character. Two gabled bays occupy the right side. A corniced doorway is centred on the ground floor with a small round-arched window above, and single windows flank this to the left and right at ground and first-floor levels. A single-storey and attic addition to the left features a small round-arched window to the ground floor and a piend-roofed window that breaks the eaves to the attic floor. A lean-to addition is present to the outer right, with the boundary wall sweeping down to the outer left. A small window is set in the gablehead of the left return.

The windows throughout are predominantly timber sash-and-case, with some lying-pane windows to Numbers 49-59. Modern two-pane windows with top hoppers have been inserted to the ground floor of Number 29.

The boundary walls comprise a low granite wall to the southwest and a coped rubble wall to Skene Street.

The interiors were not examined at the time of listing in 2000.