102, 104, 106 George Street, Oban

This is a substantial, three-storey and attic tenement building dated 1888, situated on George Street, Oban. The building is constructed in a Scots Baronial style and incorporates commercial premises at ground floor level. The building exhibits an L-shaped plan with a chamfered southwest corner.

The building’s west-facing (George Street) elevation is constructed of bull-faced, squared, and snecked grey rubble with contrasting yellow ashlar dressings. The south and east elevations feature coursed grey rubble with sandstone dressings, along with partial rendering. The detailing includes a varied base course height and a cornice above the shopfronts. A string course runs at lintel level on the first floor and a cornice sits at the eaves, surmounted by a blocking course. The George Street elevation includes a varnished timber shopfront in bay one, with narrow, fluted pilasters and brackets, an early 20th-century fretwork display above the plate glass window and door. At the southwest corner is a plain, polished grey granite shopfront, formerly a bank. Bays one and three feature two-storey, canted oriel windows, supported by heavy brackets, and integrated into the shopfronts at the first floor. An open pediment, adorned with ball finials, sits above the shopfront cornice to the left of bay four. The string course above the first floor changes level to accommodate the windows in bays five and six. The chamfered southwest corner features a projecting window on the first floor with a pierced stone balcony and ball finials, flanked by round-arched windows. The second and third floors are corbelled out, terminating in a crowstepped gable with a stone thistle finial. A round-arched window sits within the gable, with a hoodmould above. A bartizan, corbelled at its base and featuring a window, a string course, stylised shot holes, a conical bell-cast slated roof, scalloped lead flashing, and a weathervane, is positioned in the re-entrant angle.

The south-facing (John Street) elevation is a gable end wall with a canted bay at the corner. A polished granite shopfront extends from the ground floor corner up to the gable. A datestone, showing a monogram and scalloped pediment, is placed at the first floor of bay one. A blind, round-arched window is located in the gable at the top of bay one.

The east-facing (rear) elevation contains regularly spaced windows. The first and second floor windows of the west-facing elevation extend for three bays to the left. These incorporate plate glass in the lower sashes and multi-pane glazing in the upper sashes. Plate glass sash and case windows are found elsewhere. The building includes a panelled, two-leaf storm door with a two-light fanlight above, at number 110. Rear elevation windows are six-pane sash and case. The grey slated roof accommodates a platform and slated gabled dormers in bays four, five, and six, with round-arched plate glass windows, timber barge boards and finials. Dormers are also found on the rear roof pitch, with segmental eaves. Twin brick chimney stacks are connected by a simple balustrade, with matching copes. Another linked chimney stack is found on the east gable. A square downpipe, with decorative brackets, is positioned at the north end of the west elevation.