86 Hamilton Place With Gate Piers And Boundary Walls, Aberdeen

This is a pair of semi-detached villas, known as 86 and 88 Hamilton Place (and their accompanying addresses), built in 1885 by Pirie and Clyne, displaying distinctive Egypto-Greek architectural detailing. The buildings are two storeys and an attic, arranged over four bays. The external walls are constructed from rough-faced pink granite, accented by grey granite used for the bow windows, lintels, and parapet, with a particularly fine finish used for the margins. A grey granite base course and ground floor cill course are also present. The front doors are panelled timber, with letterbox fanlights above.

The principal (southeast) elevation is symmetrical, reflecting the two mirrored villas. The central bays of the ground floor feature round-arched doorways with scrolled horseshoe surrounds. Modern double doors have been installed within these openings, flanked by glazed panels. First-floor windows above have reveals that taper gently towards the base. Bowed windows extend through both the ground and first floors of the outer left and right bays, forming a balcony to the attic floor. These windows incorporate pilaster mullions with a recessed detail at the capital of the first floor. The parapet between the pediments features decorative stone detailing. The attic floor is pedimented, with decorative volutes below the window lintels and large decorative stone paterae centred within the pediments; a decorative stone finial adorns the apex. Pink granite paterae are also placed along the parapet between the pediments.

The northeast elevation is gabled, with a window centrally placed on the ground floor. A single-story addition is located to the outer right, with a doorway to 86A on the return. The northwest elevation was not inspected in 2000. The southwest elevation is also gabled, with a single-story addition to the outer left.

Predominantly two-pane timber sash and case windows are used throughout. The buildings have corniced gablehead stacks topped with circular cans. The roof is covered with grey slate and lead ridges, incorporating stone skews. Cast-iron rainwater goods are also present.

The interior of flat 1 at number 86 retains a decorative frieze in the principal room; the remainder was not inspected in 2000. The ground floor flat at 86A features surviving decorative mouldings and colonnettes at the angles of the bow window. The interiors of numbers 88 and 88A were not inspected in 2000.

The low, rough-faced pink granite boundary walls, built in an Aberdeen bond pattern with grey granite snecking and coping, extend to the south. Gatepiers, shared with numbers 82-84 and 90-92 Hamilton Place (listed separately), have grey granite shafts rising from a plinth, topped with scrolled caps. Rubble dividing walls run along the eastern and western boundaries.