1-32 Shaw Crescent (Former Elmhill House of Royal Cornhill Hospital), Aberdeen

William Ramage, 1862. Three-storey and basement, 13-bay, E-plan Italianate former mental hospital. Tooled coursed granite finely finished to margins. Base course; recessed cills to ground floor, projecting cills to remainder; long and short ashlar quoins; eaves course; overhanging eaves.

Southeast (principal) elevation: near-symmetrical; three-bay gabled entrance block, stepped forward; quadripartite square-plan columned, flat-roofed porch advanced to ground floor, stone steps to central panelled timber door with letterbox fanlight, flanked to left and right by single windows; regular fenestration to first and second floors. Regular fenestration to basement, ground, first and second floors of flanking bays to left and right. Four-storey, square-plan Italianate towers recessed behind penultimate bays to left and right, round-arched windows to each elevation with impost and keystone details, weathervane to apex. Bays to outer left and right stepped forward, three windowed bow through ground and first floors, two windows to attic floor of bay to left, upper floor removed of bay to right, blind windows to inside returns.

Northeast elevation: asymmetrical; eight-bay; regular fenestration to three bays to left, timber door with letterbox fanlight flanked to left and right by canted windows at ground floor to left; regular fenestration to first floor; second floor cills only surviving, remainder flat roofed; coped wall adjoining to outer left with lean-to timber ancillary structure, doorway to rear of building.

Northwest elevation: near-symmetrical; 13-bay; regular fenestration; four-bay block advanced to centre; flanked to left and right by three-bay blocks; flat-roofed blocks advanced to flanking bays, with tower behind, windows to inside returns; single bay block to outer right with metal fire escape; block to outer left blank, second floor removed.

Southwest elevation: near-symmetrical; ten-bay, doorway near-centre of ground floor, flanked to left and right by canted windows spanning two bays, regular fenestration to remainder; semi-circular coped wall advanced to outer left, with lean-to shelter to right return.

Predominantly twelve-pane and nine-pane timber sash and case windows. Grey slate roof with lead ridge. Coped granite ridge and wallhead stacks with octagonal cans. Cast iron rainwater goods.

Interior: simple, which much of original cornicing, panelling, doors and skirting boards surviving.