Lystina House, 12 Charlotte Street, Lerwick

Lystina House, at 12 Charlotte Street, Lerwick, is a two-storey, asymmetrical house built in the style of Scots Baronial between 1884 and 1885. It is now used as offices. The design is based on an L-shaped plan with projecting wings to the rear. The exterior is constructed of stugged, cherry-cocked Hildasay granite with dressings and details in droved sandstone ashlar. A base course is present, and window arrises are chamfered. The building features crowstepped gables and dormerheads.

The east (entrance) elevation is asymmetrical, with the right bay advanced and gabled. It contains a two-storey, three-light canted window with string and sill courses, and a crenellated parapet; a window is located in the gablehead above. A square-plan porch with a crenellated parapet sits in the re-entrant angle, accessed by stone steps with flanking cast-iron lamp standards on square and octagonal stone bases. The porch features a four-panel timber entrance door with a plate glass fanlight above, and a fixed-light window in the side elevation. A dormer window breaks the eaves in a crowstepped stone dormerhead at the first floor. Bipartite windows are located at ground and first floor in the bay to the left, with a matching dormered first floor window above the centre bay.

The south elevation displays a gable end of the principal elevation, with a window centred at ground level, and additional windows at ground and first floors to the outer left.

The west (rear) elevation has windows at ground and first floors in the bay to the outer right; a first floor window breaks the eaves in a crowstepped stone dormerhead. A gabled wing advances to the left, partially obscured by a modern addition, and has a window centred at ground level, a first-floor window offset to the right, and a small window centred in the gablehead.

The north elevation is near-symmetrical, with a four-bay arrangement. The centre bays are closely spaced within a slightly advanced chimneygable, which has a blank plaque in the gablehead. There is a blank space in the bay to the outer right. A modern addition is slightly recessed and extends to the right. Windows are present at ground and first floors in the bay to the outer left, with a first floor window breaking the eaves in a crowstepped stone dormerhead.

The windows are timber sash and case with plate glass. The roof is covered with purple-grey slate and has modern metal gutters and downpipes with hoppers. Stugged ashlar apex stacks are located on the north and south gables, both coped with octagonal cans.

Random rubble boundary walls with a concrete cope enclose the property to the north, east and south. Stugged and droved square gatepiers with corniced gablet caps stand at the northwest gate, while matching gatepiers mark the pedestrian gate at the northeast and the south entrance gate.