338 King Street, Aberdeen

This is an 1882 Collegiate Gothic school building situated on King Street, Aberdeen. The building is two storeys with an attic and basement, and extends eight bays wide. It is constructed of tooled granite ashlar with dressed base, band, and eaves courses, and features buttresses and pinnacles. The roof is covered in grey slate with lead ridges and valleys.

The west (King Street) elevation is symmetrical. A full-height buttress with chamfered arrises and a gablet sits centrally, flanked on both storeys by single bays with buttresses to the outer ground floor windows. A large triangular pediment, adorned with tall pinnacles and a decorative stone finial featuring a fleur-de-lis, spans the width of the ground floor buttresses. Bipartite windows are located to each side of the central bays, and advanced gabled end bays present a stepped centre with a stone mullioned bipartite window on both the ground and first floors. These are topped by a segmental-arched, louvred window in the gablehead, and a projecting gablet. A single bay is situated to the far left, connecting to the side elevation.

The south elevation features paired gables, each composed of paired windows to the ground and first floors, with segmental arched, louvred windows in the gableheads. An entrance door is centrally located, with an advanced block to the right containing symmetrical bays.

The rear (east) elevation is also symmetrical, with a two-storey, U-shaped range of multi-gabled buildings enclosing a former schoolyard. An advanced rectangular block is positioned centrally.

The north elevation presents paired gables, each containing paired windows to the ground and first floors. A window at the upper right of the left gable has been altered. Segmental arched, louvred windows are situated in the gableheads. A single window to both storeys on the right return forms part of the principal elevation, and recessed symmetrical bays extend to a wing on the left.

Replacement timber casement windows with 3 and 6 panes are present, some with vertical pivot central panes or opening top hoppers. The building has painted cast-iron rainwater goods, and a low coursed gablehead stack to the rear range, though the cans are now missing. The interior, last inspected in 2001, retains the layout of original classrooms and is now in university use.

The gate piers are constructed of squared tooled granite ashlar with squared caps and finials (now missing). Curved wing walls with dressed copes and chamfered arrises lead to granite piers supporting gates. The gates and railings are of plain painted wrought-iron with a stylised fleur-de-lis design.