Summerside, 32 King Harald Street, Lerwick

Summerside, 32 King Harald Street, Lerwick

This is a substantial 2-storey and attic terrace of six bays, designed by John M Aitken and dated 1885. It comprises three distinct houses: two symmetrically disposed 2-bay houses to the left (Carradale and Solheim) and a 2-bay house to the right (Summerside) with a wide canted bay at the outer right.

The building is constructed of stugged squared and snecked sandstone walls with droved ashlar dressings. A base course and decorative eaves cornice run across the principal elevation. Windows are margined with projecting cills, with segmental arches at first-floor level throughout.

The west (principal) elevation is divided between the two properties. Carradale and Solheim feature a canted glazed timber porch with stugged sandstone base in the centre bays. The porch comprises segmental-arched 4-pane fixed-lights and panelled timber doors with 4-pane uppers and segmental-arched plate glass fanlights. Inner panelled doors have leaded and stained glass uppers with sidelights. Regular fenestration fills the bays above. The outer bays contain 2-storey 3-light canted bays with corniced lintels at ground level and cill courses at first floor.

Summerside's section of the west elevation features a segmental-arched entrance door with bracketed cornice above at ground level in its left bay. The door is a 6-panel timber design with decorative cast-iron top panels, with a panelled inner door featuring etched glass upper and surrounding screen. The right bay contains a wide 2-storey canted bay with corniced lintels incorporating floreate carving at ground level. At first floor, the cill course has bracketed and corniced projecting cills. The centre face displays an arcaded bipartite window with a floreate capital.

The south elevation (Summerside) is asymmetrical across three bays. A modern conservatory on a stugged sandstone base (following the original pattern) occupies the left bay at ground level. A shouldered 6-flue wallhead stack, slightly advanced and breaking the eaves, rises above. A carved monogram bearing the architect's initials and date is positioned at the centre. Single windows appear at ground and first floors in the centre bay, with bipartite windows in the right bay.

The east (rear) elevation is asymmetrical across six bays. Summerside's 2-bay section is advanced to the left and includes a single-storey lean-to at ground level. Narrow windows flank the outer left and right at first floor, with a shouldered 4-flue wallhead stack breaking the eaves at the centre.

The section belonging to Solheim and Carradale occupies the right four bays. Regular fenestration appears at ground and first floors in the centre bays. A chimneygable with segmental-arched windows breaks the eaves above. Modern gabled porches flank the inner bays at ground level, with regular fenestration in the outer bays.

The north elevation is a blank gable end with rubble-infilled presses at each floor on both left and right sides.

The roof is of purple-grey slate with a mansard profile and central platform. It is piended over the canted bays and above the rear of Summerside. Decorative cast-iron profiled gutters run throughout. Round-arched lead-clad timber dormers with plate glass timber sash and case windows project from each bay. Canted timber dormers with plate glass sidelights sit above the piended roofs of the canted bays at Carradale and Solheim. Stugged sandstone stacks are corniced with octagonal cans.

The boundary walls are substantial. A random rubble wall with saddleback cope runs along the south. A rubble dwarf wall with ashlar cope and cast-iron railing fronts King Harald Street; this terminates to the south at a gateway comprising stugged and droved square sandstone ashlar gatepiers with bases and machicolated cornices to caps with semicircular faces, flanked by 2-leaf cast-iron gates. A cast-iron gate with finialled stanchion marks the entrance doors. Ashlar-coped walls divide the west gardens.