Description
Pirie and Clyne, 1886; John Morgan, builder. 2-storey, basement and attic, 2-bay, rectangular-plan villa. Coursed, rough-faced grey granite, finely finished to margins of principal elevation; Aberdeen bond granite rubble to remainder. Dark grey granite base course; ground floor cill course; moulded 1st floor cill course; eaves course.
NW (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: asymmetrical; doorway to left of ground floor with decoratively stop-chamfered jambs, pilastered panelled timber door, flanked to left and right by glazed panels, letterbox fanlight; decoratively shouldered tripartite window to 1st floor above; 3-light canted window through ground and 1st floors of gabled bay to right, forming balcony at attic floor, round-arched window with deeply chamfered reveals set in gablehead of attic floor; tiny stained glass quatrefoil window to outer left at ground floor, angle turret swept up at 1st floor above, single window to centre, conical fishscale roof with spherical lead finial. Wall extended to outer left at ground floor forming shouldered doorway to rear of house.
SW ELEVATION: gabled; symmetrical; pair of windows to centre of ground and 1st floors.
SE ELEVATION: near-symmetrical; basement floor not seen 2000; bipartite window to left of ground floor, flanked to right by 2 single windows; 3 regularly placed windows to 1st floor; canted dormer to left of attic floor, piend-roofed rectangular dormer to right.
NE ELEVATION: asymmetrical; panelled timber door with glazed upper panel off-centre to left of ground floor, flanked by small window; lean-to addition flanking to right; pair of stair windows between ground and 1st floors and 1st and attic floors.
Predominantly 2-pane timber sash and case windows. Grey slate roof with lead ridge. Stone skews with blocked skewputts. Coped gablehead stacks with octagonal cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods.
INTERIOR: particularly fine interior; much of original cornicing, skirting boards, dados and panelled timber doors survive; particularly fine etched glass panels to inner door with Greek and Egyptian motifs; foliate cornices and fine carved timber fireplaces survive to principal rooms; decoratively moulded ceiling at ground floor, with patterned wallpaper with sunflower paterae, also below dado; elongated colonnettes at angles of bay windows; distinctively turned balusters to sharply twisted staircase, floreate stained glass window between ground and 1st floors at stair; fine stained glass window to attic floor.
GATES, GATEPIERS AND BOUNDARY WALLS: low rough-faced pink Aberdeen bond granite walls to N and E with contrasting grey snecking and coping; gatepier and wall to NW shared with Whitehill Bowling Green Wall (see separate listing); decorative iron gate to NE flanked to left (on Whitehall Road) by decorative pier, grey granite shaft swept up from plinth, rough-faced pink granite neck surmounted by scrolled cap; rubble wall to E and S with granite and semi-circular brick coping, boarded timber gate to E with decoratively gableted walls flanking; gate to SE.
Statement of Special Interest
A-Group with 79, 62, 64-66, 68-70, 72, 74-76, 78-80, 82-84, 86-88, 90-92, 94-96 and 98 Hamilton Place, Place Whitehill Bowling Green Wall and 87 Fountainhall Road (see separate listings). 63 Hamilton Place forms part of J B Pirie (1851-1892) and Arthur Clyne's (1853-1924) finest terrace. 63 Hamilton Place is one of the simpler houses designed by Pirie and Clyne for George M Thomson, an Aberdeen merchant. It flanks the Whitehill Bowling Green to the E, to the W of the green is the identical No 79 Hamilton Place (see separate listing). The interior of No 63 Hamilton Place is extremely interesting, the survival of the original fireplaces is particularly rare, and the stained glass is very fine. Although less extravagant, the exterior is elegant and well proportioned. Unusual details include the tiny stained glass quatrefoil window flanking the door to the left, the decoratively shouldered doorway and tripartite window above, and the round-arched window to the attic floor, a form also used for some of the doorways of the houses opposite.