Document record MAB57044 - JAMESON'S HOUSE, 16-26 SCHOOLHILL, ABERDEEN

Site of a townhouse, dating probably from the 17th-18th Centuries.

Site of a townhouse, dating probably from the 17th-18th Centuries. Alleged to have been the manse of the minister of St Nicholas Church. The house was located on the north side of Schoolhill, on land acquired in 1586 by Andrew Jameson (father of the painter George Jamesone. The house was greatly admired, and featured two turrets rising from a projecting front wing, the turrets with high conical roofs and a distinctive pair of corbelled angle round, moulded window surrounds and strong courses. Between the front wing and the main house was a small stair turret corbelled out from the first floor level. An illustration by Billings shows the turrets with tapering roofs and some repairs to the building but later photographs show that these turret roofs were removed. A later 19th century description notes that the western portion of the building was of four storeys, the eastern of three. At the rear a single storey wing at the rear of the western part of the house , appeared to be part of the original structure, with a crow-stepped gable at its north end, but this part of the house had raised to three storeys in later years. By the 19th century this townhouse, like many others, was in use as a lodging house. It has been claimed as a Manse of St. Nicholas, the Bishop's Palace, the residence of Mary Queen of Scots and the prison of Samuel Rutherford but there is no evidence to suggest that this house was used for these purposes. It was demolished circa 1885, at a time when slum clearance and redevelopment was taking place in the city centre in general. The removal of this venerable and much loved structure provoked much hostility and anger at the time.

MACGIBBON, D, 1892, THE CASTELLATED AND DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE OF SCOTLAND, 1-5, V 5, p.76 (Bibliographic reference). SAB1140.

DENNISON, E, 1997, HISTORIC ABERDEEN: THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS OF DEVELOPMENT. THE SCOTTISH BURGH SURVEY, p. 40 (Bibliographic reference). SAB4057.

Record last edited

Feb 18 2019 3:52PM