2 Queen's Cross, Rubislaw, Aberdeen

Probably designed by J Russell Mackenzie around 1875, 2 Queen’s Cross is a single-story, basement and attic double villa, built as a cottage orne. It is constructed of tooled, coursed grey granite ashlar, with finely finished margins. The building features a base course, chamfered reveals, overhanging eaves, gableted dormers that break the eaves, shouldered bipartite windows with an inset quatrefoil above, decorative bargeboards, and timber fleur-de-lys at the apex of the gables.

The south-east elevation is asymmetrical, with a gabled bay projecting to the right. This bay has a canted window extending through the basement and ground floor, topped by a dentil-moulded cornice. Above the canted window is a Tudor-arched bipartite window with cusped tracery. Two bays are recessed to the left. A doorway is centrally positioned on the ground floor, leading to an open Gothic porch supported by slender cast-iron columns and six stone steps. The door is glazed and panelled, with a letterbox fanlight above. A dormer window is situated in the attic floor above the porch. A gabled bay is stepped forward to the left, featuring a window on the ground floor and a small Tudor-arched window in the gablehead above.

The north-east elevation was not inspected in 2000. The north-west elevation, also asymmetrical and three-bayed, has a canted window to the left of the ground floor, a single window centred, and two gableted dormers in the attic. A bay to the right is blank.

The south-west elevation is asymmetrical and features a gabled bay that projects to the left, mirroring the design of the south-east elevation. It incorporates a canted window through the basement and ground floor, timber brattishing along the piended roof, and a Tudor-arched bipartite window with cusped tracery above. A king-post detail adorns the gablehead. As with the south-east elevation, an open Gothic porch with slender cast-iron columns and seven stone steps leads to a glazed and panelled timber door with a letterbox fanlight. Regular fenestration is present in the flanking bay to the right, and two dormers are located in the attic floor above.

The windows are predominantly timber sash and case, with 2-pane and 4-pane glazing. The roof is covered in grey slate with lead ridges and decorative iron brattishing along the ridge facing 2 Fountainhall Road. Coped gablehead and wallhead stacks are topped with octagonal cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods are fitted. The interior was not inspected in 2000.

Low, coped granite boundary walls curve around the property to Queen’s Cross. Square-plan coped piers are located at the corners of Queen’s Cross, Fountainhall Road, and Carden Place. A brick-coped rubble wall runs along the north-west boundary.