Spence's Square, 72 Victoria Street, Kirkwall

Spence's Square, located at 72 Victoria Street in Kirkwall, is an 18th-century house that incorporates earlier fabric and has undergone later alterations. This two-storey and attic, L-plan, asymmetrical crowstepped gabled house is now divided and forms the northern side of the square, with Numbers 3 to 7 listed separately completing the southern side. The buildings are arranged around a flagstoned courtyard, which can be accessed through a screen wall with an arch on the west side. The west gable faces the street.

The northern arm features an irregular four-bay south elevation. It has a deep-set timber-panelled door with a letterbox fanlight in the central bay at ground level, flanked by a small window to the left and another small window above on the first floor. There are windows in each floor of the bays to the right, and a ground-level window in the left bay with a non-aligned window above on the first floor. The north elevation is also irregular and has three bays, with a ground-level window offset to the left of centre and a non-aligned window above. There are windows in each floor of the outer left bay and a first-floor window in the right bay. The west elevation facing Victoria Street has two bays, with a window at each floor in both bays, as well as attic windows above and a gablehead stack.

The eastern arm has a regular two-bay west elevation, featuring a boarded door at ground level, set close to the internal angle in the left bay, with a window above on the first floor. There is a window at each floor in the right bay. The east elevation has a full-height, central, pitched-roofed projection with a gablehead stack, and there is a window in each bay at the first floor of the two-bay gabled north elevation to the outer right, with a gablehead stack above.

The house predominantly features 12-pane timber sash and case windows. The traditional roof, which has been replaced, is covered with graded stone tiles and includes a stone ridge, harled corniced gablehead stacks, a ridge stack on the northern arm, and a decorative skewputt at the southwest angle. The property also has predominantly cast-iron rainwater goods. The interiors were not seen during the last inspection in 1998.