35-37 High Street, Montrose

This is a mid-19th century, three-storey and attic tenement building with four bays, located at 35-37 High Street, Montrose. It exhibits Aegypto-Greek detailing and is constructed from sandstone ashlar. A cornice runs above the ground floor, with band courses above the first-floor cill and between the first and second floors, and an eaves cornice at the top. The building incorporates earlier structures to the rear, forming an approximate U-shaped plan around a courtyard.

The west, or principal, elevation (number 35) features a tall shopfront at ground level. To the right is a pend with a part-railed timber gate. The building has channeled pilaster ends with consoles to the cornice, pilasters at the first and second floors with capitals rising to ornate skewputts. The outer bays have recessed pilasters and architraved heads, while the central bays feature capitals only, with a block pedimented above the first floor. There is key pattern and leaf decoration between the architectural elements, and two canted dormers are positioned above.

The north elevation adjoins numbers 31 and 33 High Street, and the south elevation adjoins numbers 39 and 41 High Street.

The courtyard elevation (number 37) has a harled wall to the south. The east elevation of the front block extends beyond this wall, with a canted dormer above. An entrance has a fielded panel door and louvred head; a pend is to the right. A corbelled chimney is visible on the south wall of the pend. A doorway is present on the north wall, and to the right of the pend there’s an irregular two-bay fenestration. The northwest corner is angled and has a single bay, while the north elevation has a single bay of irregular window arrangement. A projecting bay is on the east elevation. Windows have segmental heads and battered cills. An entrance on the south-facing return features architraved, large strapwork-carved consoles supporting a corniced canopy, a single leaf door with bosses and ten panels, and a plain entrance in the east wall.

The rear courtyard block is constructed from harled rubble stone. The north elevation has irregular fenestration. The east elevation features a two-bay gable end to the right and a two-bay wing to the left. The south elevation has a blank gable end, with the harling recently removed, and a modern single-story building adjoins it at ground level.

The building has timber sash and case windows with plate glass glazing, and frosted and stained glass illuminates the stairwell within the courtyard. The roof is covered in grey slate, with stone skews. Ashlar gablehead stacks are located to the south of the front block, and a brick gablehead stack is to the south of the courtyard side of the front block, and at eaves to the north. A harled, shouldered gablehead stack is located to the north and a small rendered stack to the south of the rear (east) elevations.

The interior of the building was not inspected in 1997. Rubblestone and brick boundary walls are located to the rear (east).