Quick Search
|
Search Results
You searched for: More Like: 'Nightclub company to be placed in liquidation'
11 items
items as
Allenvale Cemetery from Kincorth
60 An early photograph of Allenvale Cemetery, taking shape in the middle distance, as seen from Kincorth, with Abbotswell Farm in the foreground.
A limited company called the Aberdeen Cemetery Company was established for the purpose of creating this new graveyard. A prospectus inviting public investment was published in the Aberdeen Journal of 29th January 1873. It reads as follows:
"It is well known that in Aberdeen cemetery accommodation is limited and insufficient, and it is generally admitted that its extension is necessary, and cannot much longer be delayed. It is therefore desirable to acquire additional space for that purpose, and to treat it in accordance with modern ideas and practice.
"This company has been formed for the purpose of providing an extensive Cemetery, in the neighbourhood of Aberdeen, suitable in all respects for the purposes of internment, and of easy access - but sufficiently removed from town to preserve its suburban character."
The new cemetery opened in late 1874 and, as we know, was a big hit. It was officially known as the Aberdeen Cemetery but quickly became known as Allenvale Cemetery, after the property on which it was built.
Allenvale saw major extensions in 1912 and 1932. A London syndicate purchased control of the graveyard from the Aberdeen Cemetery Company in 1958. Aberdeen Town Council subsequently took control of the cemetery in 1965 following the then owners going into liquidation and worries about Allenvale's future. Allenvale remains a fine example of a planned Victorian cemetery to this day.
Notable residents of Allenvale include John James Rickard MacLeod (1876-1935), co-discoverer of insulin, James Scott Skinner (1843-1927), fiddler and composer, and Mary Esslemont (1891-1984), the influential doctor. Though, of course, many interned at Allenvale would have their own interesting stories to tell.
In this photograph, Duthie Park, later created on the right, has yet to be landscaped. St. Machar Poorhouse, Fonthill House and Devanha House can all be seen in the distance. Torry Brickworks chimney
309 A photograph showing the largest of the three substantial chimneys stalks that were located at the brick and tile works in Torry, located between Sinclair Road and Victoria Road.
This is one of three photographs on the Silver City Vault taken during the demolition of this Torry landmark on Saturday 12th September 1903. A full account of the demolition can be read in the Aberdeen Daily Journal from 14/09/1903, page 6.
The report tells us that the hexagonal stalk was 175 feet in height, consisted of 155,00 bricks and weighed 500 tons. The demolition was overseen by Mr Peter Tawse, a well known contractor.
Two years previously in 1901, the Seaton Brick and Tile Company had relocated their works from the site in Torry to Balgownie.
Seaton Brick and Tile Company was formed in 1884 after taking over the Northern Patent Brick and Tile Co., which operated a works at Seaton Links. They moved to the Torry works shortly afterwards.
The company continued operation at Balgownie until going into voluntary liquidation on Friday 1st August 1924. This was reported, with a short history of the company, in the next day's Press & Journal (page 6). Town House Extension Foundation Stone
2757 The foundation stone of the Aberdeen Town House extension on Broad Street.
As stated on the stone, it was laid by Lord Provost Robert S. Lennox on 17th November 1975.
The city architects responsible for the extension were I. A. Ferguson and T. C. Watson. It was built by Taylor Woodrow Construction (Scotland) Ltd.
The stone also makes reference to a casket buried five metres below the foundations to commemorate the dissolution of the Corporation of the City of Aberdeen as part of local government reform.
The casket ceremony was held on 15th May 1975 shortly after the last meeting of the Aberdeen Town Council which was being replaced by the City of Aberdeen District Council.
The casket ceremony was the final act of John Smith as lord provost. The official switch over of councils was marked by the "Bon-Accord" bell of the West Church of St Nicholas tolling from 11:50pm to midnight on 15th May. Earlier in the day saw a fireworks display at the Queens Links, pipe bands and a special lunch and church service for members and officials of the corporation. See local newspaper coverage from the time for more details on the occasion.
Around 80 people, including councillors, family and Taylor Woodrow employees watched Lord Provost John Smith place 29 items of interest into the copper clad box. Smith joked, "About the year 3048, an unsuspecting archaeological digger may come upon this box and he will no doubt remark on my genius."
Among the buried items were copies of the Press & Journal and the Evening Express, local books, records and cassettes of Scottish music, local government data, sets of coins of the realm and postage stamps, local stones, a phial of North Sea oil and plans for the Town House extension.
The casket was placed on a crane hook by Aberdeen Town House project manager Tom Nisbet and guided into the ground by foreman Andrew Benzies.
The ceremony was reported in local newspapers and the July 1975 issue of the construction company's magazine, Taywood News. 65 Union Street
2795 John Falconer & Co., Ltd. at 65 Union Street in 1937.
Falconer's was a department store. Adverts described it as a general drapers, outfitters and house furnishers. At the time of this photograph they also had a hairdressing department and a millinery salon.
John Falconer & Co. was acquired by the Scottish Drapery Corporation Ltd in 1929. This company was in turn acquired by the House of Fraser Ltd in September 1952. John Falconer & Co Ltd went into voluntary liquidation in 1952 and from then on operated as the Aberdeen branch of the House of Fraser.
See the House of Fraser Archive website for more on the history of the company.
65 Union Street was a former hotel and was known as 'The Royal Buildings'. Union St, Aberdeen, Looking East
3169 An Adelphi Series postcard showing a crowded Union Street with trams running in both directions. The photograph is looking east down Union Street.
The building on the left, at the junction with Back Wynd, is now inhabited by shops on the ground floor and a nightclub above. It was initially built in 1836-37 to a design by John Smith for the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen. It was their first purpose-built meeting hall and library in the city.
The society sold this building at 120 Union Street in 1870 and moved to new premises in Concert Court, where they remain to this day. The Union Street building was purchased by a confectioners called Lockhart & Salmond, later R. & J. Salmond, and functioned as a restaurant and public hall.
It was taken over in the early 1880s by a prominent Aberdeen caterer called George Watson. He had previously been the proprietor at The Grill and of a restaurant at 1 Union Terrace. For much of that decade the meeting rooms were also the home of the Aberdeen Conservative Club.
Watson opened the Queen's Restaurant at 118 Union Street in 1888 and this appears to be the origin of the building's lasting name. The main hall became the Queen's Billiards Saloon in the 1890s following the death of Watson in 1893.
The building was partially reconstructed and reopened as the lavish Queen's Restaurant and Tea Rooms by the Cabin Tea Rooms company in 1899. Following a stint as an auction house, it became a popular Aberdeen cinema in 1913 that operated for much of the 20th century.
A severe fire at the Queen's Cinema in 1936 led to the reconstruction of the building's interior. After the cinema closed in 1981 the premises laid empty before the reopening as a nightclub called Eagles in 1987. The building has remained in use as a nightclub ever since, becoming De Niro's in 1996 and Espionage in 2002.
This postcard was lent to Aberdeen City Libraries so that we could create a digital copy for public use. Aberdeen Theatres: Dufton Scott
3393 Robert Dufton Scott (1880-1944), born in Forgue, was another prominent North-East entertainer.
Much can be learnt of his life from the Press & Journal obituary that followed his death at his home at 3 Kirkland Terrace, Inverurie on 19th September 1944. He was sixty four years of age.
He is described as a well known elocutionist and exponent of Aberdeenshire doric. He spent his youth in Huntly and later moved to Aberdeen. The P&J suggest his "vivid delineation of Aberdeen life and character" quickly placed him at the forefront of Scottish entertainers.
He toured with Walker & Company, the local cinema pioneers, and appeared on the same bill as artists such as James Scott Skinner, Durward Lely, Mackenzie Murdoch and Jessie McLachlan.
He was associated with David Thomson at the Beach Pavilion and also appeared in concerts at the Music Hall.
Additionally, Scott found success publishing books of Scottish stories and broadcasting on the radio. In the 1910s he had moved to Inverurie and had set up business as a bookseller.
He was survived by his wife and three sons.
Aberdeen Cinemas: Regent / Odeon
3417 The Regent was opened as the second, companion cinema of Jack Poole, after his transformation of the Palace on Bridge Place that had opened in 1931. The Justice Mills location was selected and the cinema was constructed on the eastern end of the historic Upper Mill. A cinema was able to utilise the sloping nature of the site in the way few other projects could.
Michael Thomson in Silver Screen in the Silver City (1988) states that work progressed on the new cinema at an excellent rate with virtually all material and labour coming from local sources. The sparkling Rubislaw granite frontage was the work of masons Edgar Gauld of Gilcomston Terrace. Wood for the joinery work came from Sweden and Finland.
The Regent was Aberdeen's first all-new cinema since the Torry Picture House a decade before. It was also the first cinema designed by Thomas Scott Sutherland, who had previously been a designer of, and dealer in, houses, notably the granite bungalows of the Broomhill estate.
The impressive new cinema opened on Saturday 27th February 1932, to an audience mostly of guests, with the main feature being a melodrama called Over the Hill. Reporting on the opening, the Evening Express wrote the following:
"Even though Aberdeen has many magnificent edifices, there is nothing quite so distinctive as the modern design of the front of the new Regent. Fine use has been made of straight lines and curves placed in sharp contrast, and the face that looks through the entrance to Justice Mill Lane on Holburn Street has an imposing dignity about it and yet an elusive gaiety in its composition. It is built of grey granite decorated with bands of red terracotta, and a polished black granite base."
The frontage was floodlit by night and outlined by Aberdeen's neon display. Above the gantry was the large, neon "Regent" sign which made the cinema a beacon at night. The Regent and the Palace were then advertised as "Aberdeen's Super Two".
The Regent's manager John K. Stafford Poole, son of Jack Poole, was aged only 21 when the Regent opened and his innovative promotion and displays became a signature of the cinema. The younger Poole regularly invited the Gordon Highlanders to screenings and in return they would afterwards march, pipes a-skirl, through the cinema and along Union Street back to their barracks.
The Regent proved hugely popular and was soon out-performing the Palace. The success of Poole's Regent prompted Aberdeen Picture Palaces to undertake the creation of their own super-cinema, the Capitol, which would open in 1933. The same year also saw the release of King Kong and the publicity stunt of a human dressed as an ape rampaging on the frontage of the Regent.
On 16th July 1936 it was announced that another southern company called County Cinemas had acquired all the Poole picture houses, those in Devonport, Derby and Plymouth, as well as the Palace and Regent in Aberdeen. In 1939 County Cinemas merged with the larger Odeon chain. In July 1940 the "Regent" sign came down to be replaced with one that read "Odeon". As part of this powerful national circuit, the cinema could rival any in Aberdeen for showing major features.
[Information primarily sourced from Silver Screen in the Silver City (1988) by Michael Thomson] Aberdeen Cinemas: Queen's
3421 This Aberdeen Journals Archive photograph shows the Queen's cinema in 1972. The film being shown is Up Pompeii, a film version of the British sit-com of the same name.
The Queen's had been a popular cinema throughout much of the 20th century. Due to increasing costs and competition from home entertainment, it finally closed down, along with George Street's Grand Central, on 17th October 1981. Michael Thomson explains that this brought an end to James F. Donald (Aberdeen Cinemas) Ltd.'s long history as picture hall proprietors.
The building laid empty for some years before the company converted it into a nightclub that opened in 1987.
[Information primarily sourced from Silver Screen in the Silver City (1988) by Michael Thomson]
Image © Aberdeen Journals Ltd. Aberdeen Cinemas: La Scala / Majestic
3424 This photograph from the collection of the Aberdeen Journals Archive shows the Majestic Cinema on Union Street in 1972. This super-cinema at 234 Union Street was designed by architect Thomas Scott Sutherland and was built on the site of Aberdeen's first purpose-built picture house, La Scala.
A public company called Caledonian Theatres Ltd., with James Brebner of the Belmont as managing director, was formed for the purpose of acquiring the site of La Scala and some nearby buildings and constructing a large new cinema.
The Majestic opened on 10th December 1936 with a film called Eliza Comes to Stay as its main feature. In his autobiography, Sutherland states that the Majestic was his finest design. Michael Thomson in Silver Screen in the Silver City suggests that the cinema's style could be described, "without too much facetiousness", as "Sutherland Perpendicular".
Sutherland's characteristic long window panels were set in side panels on the building's Kemnay granite front. Decorative neon stripes were placed between each column. At the top of the front elevation was the neon "Majestic" sign and below that, in the centre, was the space to advertise the venue's programme.
In 1938 James F. Donald (Aberdeen Cinemas) Ltd. acquired Caledonian Theatres and the Majestic operated as part of the Donald circuit from then on. In time the cinema closed down with the site marked for redevelopment. The Majestic showed its last film, Kelly's Heroes, on Saturday 29th September 1973.
The cinema and the neighbouring Clydesdale Bank building were soon demolished. On the site was built a new £1.5 million office block called Caledonian House. This was opened on 25th February 1976.
[Information primarily sourced from Silver Screen in the Silver City (1988) by Michael Thomson]
Image © Aberdeen Journals Ltd. Aberdeen Cinemas: Palace
3429 An Aberdeen Journals Archive photograph showing the Palace cinema in 1959. This was just before the venue on Bridge Place was converted into a dance hall.
The original building was designed by John Rust and opened in 1898. It was on the site of an earlier music hall, the People's Palace, which had burned down two years before.
The theatre had shown films as part of variety performances from 1911. It was purchased by the Poole Company, a nationwide wide circuit of cinemas, and reopened as a picture house on 8th April 1929. In 1936 Poole's cinemas, including the Palace, were acquired by County Cinemas, who were later taken over by the Odeon arm of the Rank Organisation.
The Palace closed as a cinema on 14th November 1959. Its final screening was My Uncle Frank with Jacques Tati. The new Palace Ballroom launched on 24th March 1960 as Aberdeen's largest dance hall.
In 1976 the building was converted into a nightclub originally called Fusion. It has since been known as Ritzy's, The Palace, The Institute (2003), Liquid (2012) and ATIK (2018).
[Information primarily sourced from Silver Screen in the Silver City (1988) by Michael Thomson]
Image © Aberdeen Journals Ltd. |