Inverurie Building Plan
This document is an architectural building warrant
plan from the Inverurie Dean of Guild Court Plans collection. It shows the
elevations, layout and block plans for a “colony” style house that was given
planning permission by the Dean of Guild Court for construction in North Street
in the Burgh of Inverurie in October 1903.
“Colony” style houses emerged in mid 19th century
Scotland as an alternative form of housing to the traditional tenements
intended to provide each working class family with a front door to their
dwelling space and a piece of garden ground. The characteristics of the style
included multiple living areas within one 2 storey building, with access to the
upper area being provided by a direct staircase (usually situated at the back of
the building). This simple style of architecture quickly became popular and
soon spread throughout the United Kingdom.
The proposals in the Inverurie plan mimic the “colony” style
by providing 4 dwelling areas within the property, the lower ones being accessed
by doors at the front, and the upper 2 by the doors at the top of the stairs at
the back of the building.
Certain aspects of the lower flats of the building show that
they were intended to be of a higher quality than the upper ones. For a start,
they were to be more spacious with 1 extra foot of head room and 1 extra
bedroom. They were also to have an additional back door providing direct access
to the back green. Lastly, the bay windows at the front were to be larger than
those of the upper flats, making the lower parlours brighter.
Other features of this building suggest though, that it had
aspirations to be more than just a “colony” style house, in that the frontage
of the building was designed to look more like a single dwelling cottage than a
building holding four flats. This was to be done with the inclusion of a porch
roof in the middle of the building to give the impression of having only one
access door and which would draw the eye away from the two that would actually
be there. The addition of uncharacteristic parlour windows would add to the
cottage illusion, and by combining the parlour windows of two levels into one
unit there would be a further illusion that the building had just one dwelling
at ground level.
Aside from the architectural features shown in the plan, its
bright colours and realistic drawing style make it very attractive to look at,
like many other plans in the building warrant collections that the Archives
service holds. As well as the Inverurie plans, these include large collections
of warrants for Peterhead and Aberdeen City along with smaller collections for
Banchory and Inverbervie.
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