Aberdeen Awa'

This image was digitised from Artistic Aberdeen: A Sketch Book (1932) by W. S. Percy.

The book describes the scene as follows:

"Here are the old houses of the Guestrow in process of demolition. Many a scene of centuries of Aberdeen history now lies open to the air, and when the ultimate fate of the 'big houses' of the 'Gush' (the local name given to the Guestrow) is remembered the air's inroad were no bad thing. Over a hundred years ago, however, matters were very different. In 1807, for instance, Major General Macdonald, commanding the north-eastern district, gave 'an elegant ball at his house in the Guestrow to a large assemblage of the most fashionable people of the place.' By contrast it may be recalled that in the twenties of the last century the Guestrow had a "burking" house where bodies for dissection by the anatomists were received or kept. So slowly but surely the hands of time and progress set the houses and even the street itself among the ghaists of Aberdeen that was."