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Summary

Description

Circa 1800, extended circa 1820. House comprised of symmetrical 2-storey and attic 3-bay original house (on sloping site to Law Lane) with 2-storey 3-bay later wing projecting at centre of rear (N) elevation, giving T-plan with early 20th century lean-to infill in NE re-entrant angle. Harl-pointed and cement-rendered and lined rubble walls with stugged and droved ashlar dressings.

S (LAW LANE) ELEVATION: cement-rendered infill to door at ground in centre bay; regular fenestration with projecting cills in flanking bays and at 1st floor.

W (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: gable end of original house advanced at right, single window centred at ground. 2-storey 3-bay elevation of later wing recessed at left; 6-panel entrance door with plate glass fanlight at 1st (principal) floor in bay to right, approached by stone steps with modern steel railings; regular fenestration in bays to left.

E (PIRATE LANE) ELEVATION: 2-bay gable end of original house advanced at left, regular fenestration at ground and 1st floors, square windows flanking centre in gablehead. Later wing recessed at right with lean-to infill in re-entrant angle.

Timber sash and case windows, 12-pane to W elevation of wing, plate glass to other openings, modern glazing at ground to S elevation, and attic. Purple slate and asbestos tile roofs; stugged ashlar and rubble apex stacks to gables, coped, with circular cans; cement-rendered and ashlar skew copes.

INTERIOR: timber staircase with turned spindles. Drawing room at 1st floor of wing comprising symmetrical arrangement at N wall of classical timber chimneypiece with flanking windows; 6-panel doors in S wall (dummy at left); 2-windows in W wall; all architraved with panelled shutters.

RETAINING AND BOUNDARY WALLS: random rubble retaining wall with ashlar cope to flagged area along W elevation. Random rubble boundary walls to N, E, S, and W. Raised wallhead with stugged sandstone cope to S (Law Lane), margined gateway adjacent to house; vertically-boarded timber gate with slatted upper. Vertically-boarded timber door adjacent to wing at E wall.

OUTBUILDINGS: 2-storey gabled rubble out building with purple-grey slate roof to Hangcliff Lane. Lean-to outbuilding with vertically-boarded timber door in yard adjacent to N gable of later wing.

Statement of Special Interest

This was the house of Sheriff Duncan who built the nearby Prospect House and gave the lane its original name of Sheriff?s Kloss.

The father and son of the Spence family both practised law from Windhouse, the father, Robert Niven Spence, was a prominent townsman. The house was later occupied by Lawrence Laurenson of Laurenson & Company. Windhouse is an interesting enlargement of a typical lanes house, the later wing being of good quality and containing one of Lerwick?s most elegant domestic rooms.

References

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