Music Hall, 174-194 Union Street, Aberdeen

The Music Hall, located at 174-194 Union Street, Aberdeen, was originally designed by Archibald Simpson and built in 1820. A large hall was subsequently added by James Matthews between 1858 and 1859. Murals were painted by Robert Douglas Strachan between 1899 and around 1909, and the building was restored in 1986. The building occupies a central location and is a monumental, tall civic building of neo-Greek style, presenting as a single storey with an attic and five bays. It features a hexastyle Ionic portico and boasts finely detailed interiors.

The building is constructed from grey granite, with polished and dressed surfaces. The principal, south-eastern elevation, facing Union Street, includes steps leading up to the portico, which has a plain tympanum. A large, two-leaf panelled timber door and a decoratively-astragalled fanlight are positioned at the centre, flanked by tall windows in the bay recesses. The return elevation to the north-east has a regular seven-bay arrangement of windows, with an outer left blind niche and taller bays at the outer right, incorporating a consoled doorpiece. The north-western elevation is taller, with long, stepped, flat-roofed entrance bays projecting at ground level. The set-back face features largely regular, segmental-arched windows arranged over two storeys.

Multi-pane glazing patterns are found in timber sash and case windows throughout the building.

The spacious interior retains a well-preserved, classically-detailed design, handsomely treated with fine plasterwork, timberwork, and fireplaces. Steps lead up from the vestibule to an ionic-columned saloon with an elliptical dome and a pilastered, T-shaped promenade with a coffered ceiling. To the left of the promenade is a Corinthian-columned Round Room (now a café) with a central oculus. A Square Room (Concert Bar) features an anta order and a dome. Former ballroom space now houses service rooms, with a segmentally-arched ceiling. The promenade connects to the rectangular Music Hall, which also has a vestibule on North Silver Street, containing a stage and a full organ at the west end. A gallery, supported by cast iron columns with decorative bowed ironwork, faces east, with raked seating. The ceiling is elaborate, featuring elliptic and circular decoration. Murals, including 'Apollo and the Muses' above the organ, an Orpheus theme, and a Pre-Raphaelite depiction of the 'Muses' by Hugh Adam Crawford (painted in 1949), adorn the interior. Decorative ironwork balusters line the staircases flanking the saloon.