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Summary

Description

1 and 3 Belmont Street: earlier 19th century. 7 Denburn Road: possibly by Archibald Simpson (see Notes), mid 19th century. Prominent, internally-linked commercial buildings with contrasting elevations to both Belmont Street and Denburn Road. Situated on steeply sloping ground.

Belmont Street (E elevation): 3-storey and attic, 4-bay, Classical commercial building on gently sloping site. Grey granite ashlar. Base course; band course between ground and 1st floor. Tall round-arched openings to Public House at ground floor with astragalled, fixed-pane glazing and ornamental cast-iron railings. Steps to slightly recessed 2-leaf door at far right bay with fixed-pane fanlight above. Regular fenestration at 1st and 2nd floors returning to curved bay at SE corner; pair of canted tripartite dormers.

Denburn Road (W elevation): 5-storey, 4-bay flat-roofed addition to earlier Belmont Street building. Roughly squared and coursed granite rubble with irregular Aberdeen Bond snecking; raised cills; projecting band cornice. Pair of broad, round-arched openings at ground floor; round-arched openings at 1st floor; regular fenestration at floors above. Returns to single bay to S elevation. Predominantly blind openings at N elevation.

Predominantly 4-pane timber sash and case windows throughout. Grey slate, pitched roof to Belmont Street with curving ashlar skew to SE corner; Gable end stacks with clay cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: (Seen 2006) Extensively altered.

Statement of Special Interest

1 and 3 Belmont Street and 7 Denburn Road is a prominent and unusual commercial building with 2 distinct and contrasting elevations reflecting the steeply sloping site and the different building phases. 1 and 3 Belmont Street follows the Classical Aberdeen tradition with its ashlar granite and round arched ground floor which survives along with its good quality integral iron-work railings. The later addition at 7 Denburn Road to the rear rises an impressive 5 storeys with round arched openings to the ground and 1st floors. It forms a distinctive part of the streetscape and is visible from Union Street Viaduct and Union Terrace. Reference is made to this part of the building in the Aberden Journal on 15th Jan 1840, regarding necessary additions to the adjacent Aberdeen Hotel (now Victoria Restaurant) by Archibald Simpson. The rubble build is particularly unusual for Simpson.

Together, these buildings are located in Aberdeen's commercial heart and are evidence of the success of the expanding city in the 19th century. A stepped pend, similar to the one at Patagonian Court, runs the length of the building's N elevation from Belmont Street down to the Denburn below. This is currently blocked off to public access for safety reasons. Belmont Street was open pasture running alongside the Denburn until the 1770's from which point it was feued for building and quickly developed with a variety of uses and styles in evidence to this day.

References

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