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Summary

Description

Kininimonth and Spence, 1935. Group of 10, symmetrical, paired, terraced 2-storey council houses, stepping down towards harbour. Painted brick above deep rubble base course. Concrete cill course at ground. Semi-circular arch with paired multi-paned entrance doors in recess to centre of each pair of houses; black pantiles on end, framing arch. E wall abutted to rear of later houses.

S (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: tripartite windows, with fixed horizontally glazed central lights to flanking bays at ground floor, bipartites above set close to eaves; Nos 28-30 with 4-light and 3-lights respectively.

N (REAR) ELEVATIONS: low painted brick forestairs with concrete risers to doors to centre bays. Bipartites window to outer bay of each floor; single window at 1st floor to centre bays.

Casement windows with original 3 or 4-pane glazing pattern. Simple eaves course and sweeping eaves. Cement pantiles. Harled gable stacks with concrete coping and circular cans. Brick outhouses with corrugated iron roofs and garden walls with concrete coping at rear.

Statement of Special Interest

B Group consisting of Nos 1-6 Harbour Court, Nos 3-9 Victoria Place, 12-30, 15A-15D and 19A-19C Victoria Street, Nos 8-12 Writer's Court, Nos 1-4 Bungles Court and Nos 30-38 Lamer Street (see separate list entries).

12-30 Victoria Street is a good and largely-unaltered example of Kininmonth and Spence's municipal housing work and an important example of interwar housing in Scotland. The buildings are well detailed combining vernacular building materials with a modern style, such as the red sandstone basecourse, black pantiles framing entrance arch and modern picture windows. The design characteristics of the practice's commissions for private dwellings are successfully reinterpretated on a smaller scale, such as painted white exterior walls and steeply-pitched roofs. Built to a cost of £3,500 this terrace replaced a tenement, known as Cat's Row, demolished 1933. This terrace of interwar housing forms part of a wider group of well-designed local authority housing by Basil Spence's post-war practice.

Kininmonth and Spence both trained with Sir Edwin Lutyens in London. They established their architectural practice in 1931 following their return to Scotland. The core of the practice's early work was large surburban private dwellings such as Glenwood, Edinburgh (1931-32) and Gribloch near Kippen (1937). However the practice's finances were boosted by commissions for local authority housing, such as 12-30 Victoria Street. This scheme was part of a larger municipal housing development at Dunbar Harbour, which was curtailed by World War II.

In 1946 Spence left the Partnership, which had previously merged with Rowand Anderson & Paul in 1934. However both architects continued to design municipal housing developments. Spence designed a later housing scheme at Dunbar Harbour (1948-56) as well as work at Great Michael Rise, Newhaven, Edinburgh (1957-9) and Canongate, Edinburgh (1961-9) (see separate listings). Kininmouth's later housing development includes Lower Burnmouth (from 1948) (see separate listing) and Castlehill, Forres (completed 1958).

Basil Spence and William Hardie Kininmouth were two of was one of Scotland's foremost 20th century architects, both of whom were knighted for their services to architecture. Spence leapt to prominence during the Festival of Britain in 1951 as chief architect for the Exhibition of Industrial Power in Glasgow. Some of his most renowned works include Coventry Cathedral and the British Embassy in Rome, which promoted him internationally. Kininmonth's work was also wide-ranging, such as Pollock Halls of Residence (1952-59 and 1967-69) and the University of Edinburgh's Adam House (see separate listings).

List description updated following Sir Basil Spence Thematic Listing Survey (2009-11)

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