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Summary

Description

Aberdeen Corporation Engineer's Office, 1903 and 1904. Tall 3-storey, 3-bay entrance block fronting Millburn Street, 2-storey wing to rear; 7-bay rectangular-plan workshop and warehouse fronting Crown Street; 2-storey wings to rear forming long U-plan. Granite, ashlar to Crown Street and Millburn Street, coursed and ladder pinned to remainder. Base course; dividing band course above ground floor; 1st floor cill course; eaves cornice and raised wallhead with cornice; pilaster quoins.

S (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: symmetrical. Ground floor quarry faced; consoled and corniced doorway to centre, 6-panel door flanked by panelled sidelights, timber dentil cornice, 3-light rectangular fanlight, decorative cast-iron lamp-holder above; bipartite windows with chamfered reveals flanking to left and right. Bipartite window to centre of 1st floor with fluted pilaster mullion, consoled capitals and pediment; 2-light window to flanking bay to left and right. 3 regularly placed architraved windows to 2nd floor. Raised wallhead with inscription reading "CORPORATION ELECTRICITY WORKS", surmounted by curvilinear gable with carving of the Arms of the City of Aberdeen. 2-storey link to left; round-arched former entrance to ground floor, now with mullioned glazing, corbelled band course above, 2 windows at 1st floor; 3-storey modernised wing flanking to left.

E ELEVATION: asymmetrical; front block to left; blind round arch to ground floor, 4-bay 1st and 2nd floors, window to each bay. 2-storey wing extending N with modern 2-storey block adjoining.

N ELEVATION: asymmetrical; gabled 3-bay wing advanced to left, 3 windows to 1st floor, modern addition to ground floor extending along right return, irregular window openings to right return, large round-arched pend entrance to far right. Modern raised link corridor to centre. M-gabled warehouse advanced to right, 2 depressed-arched windows to each gable, louvred bull's-eye opening with moulded surround set in gablehead, spherical stone finial to apex of gables; 6 depressed-arched openings to left return, modern additions and alterations.

W ELEVATION: asymmetrical; 3-storey, 4-bay modernised wing to right, window to each of 2 central bays, flanked to left and right by bipartite windows, at ground 1st and 2nd floors. 7-bay warehouse adjoining to left; pilastered bays; 2 central bays, and bay to outer left pedimented; depressed-arched doorway partly infilled with door and window to bay to outer left; depressed-arched window to remaining 6 bays to right.

Predominantly modern glazing, 16-pane to warehouse. Grey slate roofs, some piended with lead ridges; square platform balcony to centre of Millburn Road block with decorative cast-iron brattishing and corner finials, steel pylon to centre, ridge ventilators with conical caps. Granite wallhead and gablehead stacks. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: tiled mosaic floor to entrance lobby with Aberdeen Coat of Arms. All offices modernised in 1970s and subsequently, wood panelling used extensively.

Statement of Special Interest

This complex comprises the former Electricity Works and offices, and the former Tram Car Depot and workshops. Aberdeen Corporation purchased the tramways in 1898 and planned to build a new generating station with the tram depot adjacent. "Dee Village" was levelled and the site of approximately 2 acres cleared in 1901. The Generating Station opened in March 1903 and the Tram depot in 1904. An extraordinary part of the scheme is the (surviving) cable subway which runs under Crown Street for some 1500 yards to Holburn Street (see separate listing of decorative ventilator, Justice Mill Lane and Holburn Street). The turbine hall has been replaced by an office block, and the site chimney demolished. The tram depot is now in use as warehousing.

References

Bibliography

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