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Summary

Description

Early 19^th century. The site consists of a two storey, three bay house fronting Charlotte Street which is linked by external steps to a smaller, ancillary three-bay, single-storey building to the rear with its gable set to Maiden Street.

Both buildings appear on the First Edition Ordnance Survey map as they are now. They are built in large pink squared granite blocks. The front building has a slate roof, stone skews and rendered chimneystack and is rendered to the first floor and gable. The smaller rear building has paired corniced stone chimneystacks and a steeper pitched roof clad in sheet material.

The interior decorative details date to the later 20^th century. The inside of the smaller building was not seen.

Historical background

The buildings are shown on Ainslie's map of 1805, and first appear in detail in their current footprint on the 1^st Edition Ordnance Survey Map (surveyed 1868). This map shows that when built they were immediately on the shoreline before that ground was reclaimed in front of Charlotte Street. They were likely to have been related to the herring trade when they were built, and an advertisement from 1920 records the building was occupied by a herring trader at that time (Buchan Observer and East Aberdeenshire Advertiser, 19 October 1920). The front house would have been the main dwelling with the rear building ancillary accommodation or workspace.

Statement of Special Interest

2 Charlotte Street and 51, 53 Maiden Street meets the criteria for listing for the following reasons:

• The two-storey, 3-bay house to Charlotte Street is a typical example of a plain classical early 19th century domestic building which survives largely in its original form to the exterior. The addition of a related outbuilding to the rear adds to the special interest of the small grouping of vernacular buildings. The traditional arrangement of the gable end facing Maiden Street is notable.
• The buildings are built of good quality materials, constructed in in local pink granite, and while there has been a degree of change, overall they retain their early features, such as their window openings and roofline.  
• Fronting two main roads, these buildings are prominent historic building in the local streetscape set towards the eastern edge of the Peterhead Central conservation area. They form part of an architecturally and historically significant group of other historic buildings of similar date and type, which are also listed. The category A-listed Peterhead Old Parish Church (also dating to the early 19^th century) is nearby.
• The grouping has special social historical interest as it illustrates the growing prosperity of the fishing trade in Peterhead in the 19th century.   Their location near the shoreline of Peterhead Bay and the harbour reinforces this historical connection.

Supplementary information in listed building record updated in 2026.

References

Bibliography

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