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Summary

Description

18th century incorporating earlier fabric; later alterations. 2-storey and attic, L-plan, asymmetrical crowstepped gabled house (now divided) forming N side of square (Numbers 3 to 7, listed separately, completing S side), the pair ranged round flagstoned courtyard, off E Victoria Street; screen wall with arch forming courtyard entrance to W; W gable to street. Harled with cement dressings. Cement margins to some openings.

N ARM: S (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: irregular, 4-bay. Deep-set timber-panelled door with letterbox fanlight at ground in bay to centre; small window to left flanking; small window at 1st floor above. Window at each floor in bays to right. Window at ground in bay to left; non-aligned window at 1st floor above. N ELEVATION: irregular, 3-bay. Window at ground in bay offset to left of centre; non-aligned window at 1st floor above. Window at each floor in bay to outer left. Window at 1st floor in bay to right. W (VICTORIA STREET) ELEVATION: 2-bay. Window at each floor in each bay; attic windows above; gablehead stack.

E ARM: W (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: regular 2-bay. Boarded door at ground, set close to internal angle, in bay to left; window at 1st floor above. Window at each floor in bay to right. E (REAR) ELEVATION: full-height, central, pitched-roofed projection with gablehead stack. Window in each bay at 1st floor to 2-bay gabled E elevation of N arm to outer right; gablehead stack above.

Predominantly 12-pane timber sash and case windows. Traditional (replaced) graded stone tiled roof; stone ridge; harled, corniced gablehead stacks; ridge stack to N arm; decorative skewputt to SW angle (see notes); predominantly cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIORS: not seen, 1998.

Statement of Special Interest

Together with Nos 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 (see separate listing), Nos 1 and 2 Spence's Square form a small courtyard off Victoria Street. The houses to the rear of the square have 1st floor entrances with a linking walkway over a close which leads to the gardens behind. The complex has undergone an award-winning restoration by Orkney Islands Council which re-harled them and replaced the traditional graded stone tiles. Originally a single L-plan dwelling, Number 72 has subsequently been flatted. Its roadside gable bears a decorative skewputt depicting the face of a man in a flat Geneva hat and a ruff; he has been identified with a Rev Scott, minister of the Cathedral and resident here circa 1725.

Statutory address revised 2008. Previously listed as '72 Victoria Street, Spence's Square'.

References

Bibliography

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