Language Block, Aberdeen Grammar School, Skene Street, Aberdeen

Language Block, Aberdeen Grammar School, Skene Street, Aberdeen

A Scots Baronial building designed by A Marshall Mackenzie in 1898 and remodelled by J A O Allan in 1927 and 1929. Originally built as the new Westfield School and Aberdeen Grammar School Gymnasium, it is a 2-storey structure with basement and attic storeys. The building is 11 bays wide and constructed in tooled coursed grey granite ashlar with finely finished margins. The base course features chamfered reveals and curved angles that are corbelled to right angles at the first floor level. A cill course runs across the first floor. Crowstepped gables with inset narrow window openings are topped with spherical finials at the apex.

The south-east principal elevation is nearly symmetrical with bays arranged in a 2-3-1-3-2 pattern. A gabled entrance bay is advanced at the centre, with an architraved window flanked to the right by an architraved modern doorway on the ground floor. A tripartite window sits above on the first floor, with a bipartite window to the attic floor. Angle turrets are corbelled out from the first floor, each with a window and topped with conical spires with fish-scale slate roofs. The flanking 3-bay blocks have tripartite windows at the centre of the ground floor, flanked by bipartite windows on either side. Gabled tripartite windows break the eaves at the centre of the first floor, flanked by single windows. The outermost 2-bay gabled blocks feature pairs of bipartite windows centred to the ground floor, with the centre plane of the first floor corbelled out and two bipartite windows set centrally.

The north-east elevation is symmetrical with 7 bays. First-floor windows break the eaves. A single window is positioned at the centre of the ground floor with blank space above. Two gabled bays flank the centre, each with bipartite windows to ground and first floors. Single gabled bays project at the outer left and right, each with a bipartite window to the ground floor and a single window to the first floor.

The north-west elevation is nearly symmetrical with 11 bays arranged in a 2-2-3-2-2 pattern. A gabled bay projects at the centre with two single windows flanked by bipartite windows at ground and first floors. Two-bay blocks flank to left and right. The block to the right has a tripartite window to the left of the ground floor, a flat-roofed porch with crenellated parapet obscuring the right bay, a bipartite window at the centre, a doorway to the left return, and two bipartite windows to the first floor above. The block to the left has a flat-roofed porch with crenellated parapet obscuring the ground floor, two bipartite windows, a doorway to the right return, and two bipartite windows to the first floor above. The outermost 2-bay gabled blocks have pairs of bipartite windows to ground and first floors.

The south-west elevation is symmetrical with 7 bays. First-floor windows break the eaves. A window sits at the centre of the ground floor with blank space above. Two gabled bays flank the centre, each with bipartite windows to ground and first floors. Single gabled bays project at the outer left and right. The bay to the outer right has a bipartite window to the ground floor, whilst the bay to the outer left has a blank ground floor. Single windows occupy the first floors of both.

Windows throughout are predominantly 2-pane timber-framed with top hoppers. The grey slate roof features lead ridges and three regularly placed decorative octagonal timber ventilators along the ridge, each with a conical fish-scale tiled roof. A weather-vane crowns the apex of the centre ventilator, with decorative finials on the remainder. Beaked skewputts and a coped gablehead stack with a stack breaking the pitch are detailed with circular cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods complete the external finishes.

The interior is simple with little detailing.