2-8 (Even) Commercial Street Lerwick, Shetland Islands, Scotland, UK
Listed Building Description
Text courtesy of Historic England. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.
Circa 1817. 2-storey and attic over concealed basement 6-bay tenement (Nos 2-6) with single storey and attic gabled lodberries projecting to N at E and at W (No 8), adjacent to Copeland?s Pier and Stout?s Piers respectively, flagged courtyard between, giving U-plan. Random rubble walls with stugged and droved sandstone dressings. S (COMMERCIAL STREET) ELEVATION: 6 bays, grouped 3-3, left group with door in centre bay at ground, right group with door in centre bay at ground and common entrance at ground to left. Modern concrete steps. Regular fenestration at 1st floor. N (REAR) ELEVATION: irregularly fenestrated with lodberries advanced at outer left and right. Slate-hung timber box dormers breaking eaves in bays flanking centre and (bipartite) in bay to outer left. E ELEVATION: 2-bay gable end of tenement, blank bay at left, windows at all floors (except 1st) in bay to right, vertically-boarded timber shutter to window at ground, modern glazing at attic. W ELEVATION: blank gable, except for window to attic in bay at left. COPELAND?S (E) LODBERRY AND PIER: stugged and coursed rubble slipway with parapet and cobbled surface to E. E elevation; 3 bays, pend with vertically-boarded timber shutter to 12-pane timber sash and case window above in 2-storey bay to left, right bays advanced, blank bay to left, single window in bay to right. N gable; single door to left at upper floor, cantilevered balcony with flagpole and steel railing clasping corner. W (courtyard elevation) sliding door with glazed upper in bay to left at ground floor, metal stair to modern door in dormerhead breaking eaves in bay to right. Timber slate-hung box dormer with 12-pane timber sash and case window at left. STOUT?S LODBERRY AND PIER: sloping pier to W, cobbled surface with steps at sea. W elevation; partially-infilled window with iron bars to left, infilled door at right; modern wall extending to right, enclosing flagged ramp to entrance in partially-exposed S gable. N gable; 2 windows in gablehead only. E (courtyard elevation) modern metal stair to door in dormerhead breaking eaves in bay to right, 4-pane fixed-light (former door) centred at ground. Timber sash and case windows, plate glass at 1st floor of principal elevation of No 2, modern 4-pane elsewhere. Purple-grey slate roof with cast-iron gutters and downpipes. Coped multi-flue stacks with circular cans at principal gables and centring ridge. Coped 2-flue apex stacks with circular cans to lodberries. Cement-rendered skew copes with corbelled skewputts at gables, lead covered skew copes at party-wall. SEA WALL: random rubble wall with irregular openings (some infilled) bounding N side of courtyard.
Listed Building Statement of Special Interest
© Crown Copyright text courtesy of Historic Environment Scotland, reprinted under the Open Government License.
James Copeland was an Orcadian who farmed the island of Noss very successfully. He retired to Lerwick where he built his own pier about 1817, along with the these houses. They were initially restored in 1965 by the Council as part of their post-war house-building program, and again by Richard Gibson circa 1985. The Palladian form of the tenement with flanking lodberries presents an impressive elevation to the sea, as well as being an essential part of the fabric of Commercial Street. An old photograph shows the windows to be glazed with 12-pane timber sash and case windows.
Listed Building References
© Crown Copyright text courtesy of Historic Environment Scotland, reprinted under the Open Government License.
James W Irvine LERWICK (1985) p109, 243, plate 40. Mike Finnie SHETLAND (1990) p15. James R Nicolson LERWICK HARBOUR (1966) p9. John Gifford HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS (1992) p493. Thomas Manson LERWICK DURING THE LAST HALF CENTURY (1991) p140.