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Former hotel, now in use as offices and various commercial buildings, built in 1843-45, probably by Thomas Mackenzie, Elgin. It is depicted on the 1st and 2nd edition OS maps as the Fife Arms Hotel. It is a fine Renaissance group of three blocks, comprising a centre three-storey block flanked on either side by long two-storey ranges. The frontage is of polished sandstone ashlar, with mixed rubble return gables and rear, except the rear of main block which is harled. There are ashlar margins and dressings. The centre block (Fife House, 10 Low Street) is three storeys over a raised basement, with five bays. The centre entrance has a couple-columned Roman Doric portico and steps to the doorway, with a panelled door. The ground and first floor has panelled, aproned windows, all with moulded jambs and corniced at the first floor. The second floor has smaller windows, with similar mouldings to jambs. The angles are quoined, and there is a modillioned wallhead cornice supporting a balustrade, a simple cornice at the return gable wallhead below a plain blocking course, corniced and stringcoursed return gable wallhead stacks flanked by scroll consoles, rear corniced stacks, and a shallow piended slate roof. The interior features a column-screened entrance hall. 8 Low Street is to the south of the main block. It is two-storey over raised basement, four-bay range abutting the south gable of Fife House, forming a continuous frontage. It has a corniced doorpiece with moulded jambs, tripartites in the south outer bay at both ground and first floors. The first floor windows are linked by a bandcourse. A moulded wallhead cornice supports a plain blocking course, with corniced and stringcoursed end and ridge stacks, and a shallow gabled slated roof. The rear has irregular fenestration, with a tripartite in the extreme south bay mirroring the first-floor front tripartite, and lighting a former drawing room. Inside there is a curved staircase against the east wall with decorative cast-iron balusters, the former dining room in the ground floor has a simple moulded cornice, and the first floor former drawing room has a deep moulded decorative cornice and plain, striated white marble chimneypiece (room now subdivided). To the north of the main block is 12-16 Low Street, which is a two-storey, eight-bay range abutting the north gable of Fife House and forming a continuous frontage. It features a wide, basket-arched pend arch, with blocked imposts that leads to a former stables at the rear. There are a pair of panelled double-leaf doors to the north of the pend, and two at the south. Nos 14 and 12 have original moulded shop windows with renewed glazing, with moulded jambs and a cast-iron grill below ventilating the cellars. No 16 has been modernised. Between each pair of shops is a doorway to the internal accommodation. The first floor has regular fenestration, the windows with simple raised jambs, all linked at sill level by bandcourse. A deep wallhead cornice supports a plain blocking course. There are also stringcourses and corniced stacks as elsewhere on building. A short three-storey wing projects into the court. The former stables are now converted as garages.
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Historic Environment Records (HER)