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The Castlegate
16 Engraving of the Castlegate, c. 1850. The statue of the last Duke of Gordon, erected in 1844, was removed in the 1950s to Golden Square. Published by G. Shepherd, Broad Street, Aberdeen Gilcomston Steps, Skene Square
20 Gilcomston Steps, foot of Skene Square, in 1866. Part of old Gilcomston, these 18th century labourers' houses were known as "the rotten holes" and were among the very worst slums in the city, even by the standards of the mid 19th century. The end house with the sign was used as a smithy. All were demolished to make way for the Denburn Valley Railway, c.1866. The 'Aberdeen' Bus 1930s
267 Bus driver with his Albion motor bus belonging to the Deeside Omnibus Service, 1930s. This coach was one of several in the fleet of the Ballater based Strachan's Company. For many years, these coaches regularly departed from the SMT depot in Bon Accord Square before journeying to Banchory and beyond. Strachan's Deeside Omnibus Service operated on the Royal Deeside route for many years with Alexanders. This particular 'Aberdeen' bus looks in good condition with gleaming bodywork. Note the roof-rack for any large pieces of luggage. Castlegate, Aberdeen
271 The Castlegate, Aberdeen looking west towards Union Street, showing the spires of the Town House and Tolbooth. The building on the right at the corner of Union Street and King Street, was designed by the architect Archibald Simpson as the North of Scotland Bank, later Clydesdale Bank. After its closure as a bank, the building was refurbished and opened in 1997 as a pub named 'The Archibald Simpson'.
In the foreground is the statue of the 5th Duke of Gordon which is now in Golden Square. Adjacent to the statue is the shelter used by cab drivers. New Quay
350 New Quay, Aberdeen Harbour. This photograph shows the navigation channel leading from Aberdeen Harbour into the North Sea, with the North Pier in the far distance on the left. The New Quay later became part of Pocra Quay.
The Pier was built by John Smeaton in 1781 and extended on several occasions to provide better access to the harbour. At the corner of the photograph is the customs Watch House, part of which has now been converted into a seafood restaurant.
The brick obilisk in the centre is a ventilation shaft for a sewer which emptied into the channel. A newer sewer outfall has rendered it redundant.
It is popularly known as Scarty's Monument. 'Scarty' was the nickname of William Smith, one of two harbour pilots in the mid-19th century. His duty was to keep watch from the North Pier during rough weather.
Nicknames were often used in the fishing community to distinguish between people of the same surname. The Castle Street / Rosemount / Mile End horsedrawn omnibus
357 The Castle Street / Rosemount / Mile End horsedrawn omnibus.
This photograph looks north towards the houses where Beechgrove Terrace becomes Kings Gate. St. Nicholas Church bell
382 A photograph of one of the bells installed in St. Nicholas Church in 1887.
A carillon of 36 bells were ordered by Aberdeen Town Council from Severin van Aershodt of Louvain in Belgium to replaced those destroyed in the fire of 1874.
The bells were also commissioned and installed to commemorate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, marking 50 years of her reign. The largest of the new bells was named Victoria.
On 11th May 1887, the new bells arrived at Aberdeen Goods Station, after being shipped to Leith, where they were loaded on to lorries, and paraded through the main streets of the city on their way to Back Wynd.
The inscription on the shown bell reads as follows:
"The gift of Councillor George Washington Wilson. Cast by Severin Vanaerschodt, Louvain Belguim." Union Terrace and Gardens
412 A postcard image showing Union Terrace Gardens in the centre of Aberdeen.
There are a couple of notable features that might be able to help date the image: there is no bandstand present and the lower, central area in this image is still in the older lay-out with wide dividing paths.
The removal of the bandstand and change of lay-out may have been carried at around the same time. A minute from an Aberdeen Town Council meeting of 21st September 1931, detailing a recommendation from the Links and Parks Committee to the full Council, reads as follows:
"The Committee had before them a report by the Superintendent of the City Parks, in which he points out that he has had the bandstand in Union Terrace Gardens examined, that it is in a bad state of repair, and that he has been informed that the cost of repairing the worn-out parts would be almost equal to the cost of a new stand. He further states that the bandstand has not been used for some years, owing to the noise from the adjoining railway interfering with the performances, and suggests that the stand should be removed, the site and surrounding pathways levelled, covered with soil and sown with grass seed. If this were done, the playing area would be increased by 1,407 square yards, as shown coloured yellow on the plan herewith submitted, thereby giving greater facilities to the large number of children who frequent the Gardens.
"The Committee approved of the report, and beg to recommend that the Council should grant authority to the Superintendent of Parks to have the bandstand removed and the other work carried out as proposed." (Minutes and Proceedings of Town Council, City of Aberdeen, 1930-1931, page 660.
The full Council approved this recommendation from the Links and Parks Committee. In light of this information, the image may date from relatively shortly after September 1931. After the bandstand has been removed but before the ground had been leveled and sown as a single larger grass lawn. The Green
424 The Green. The house occupied by John Buchan, baker, at the foot of the Back Wynd stairs leading up to Union Street was demolished in 1914. In the late seventeenth century the house was owned by George Aedie. Although Boots the Chemist have since relocated elsewhere, the stairs which replaced these are still often referred to as the Boots Stairs because there was an entrance to their premises on the left.
The golden teapot sign that belonged to John Adam's tea and coffee shop disappeared when the shop closed.
Correspondent Ed Fowler investigated the 1904 Post Office directory for Aberdeen to discover more information about the businesses visible in the image. John Adam's premises, with its golden teapot at 64 The Green, can be see on the far right. The tea merchant lived in Hammerfield House, 349 Great Western Road.
The next two entrances to the left, 66 and 68, are for the tenements above the shops. To the left of them at 70 The Green is a drapers called P. & C. Adams. The business also had premises at 47 George Street. Aberdeen Harbour
425 Aberdeen Harbour with sailing ships.
Correspondent Ed Fowler comments:
"The 2-Masted Brig Cheviot is moored in the centre of the Upper Dock and in the background on Trinity Quay stands the new Post Office (erected 1873-76 formerly the 2nd Fishmarket Site) opposite the added diagonal Quay Corner.
The adjacent Quayside Site has been demolished revealing the dilapidated Tenement Houses of lower Shiprow (No.s 78-84) bounded by Brebners Court & Sutherlands Court which were seldom previously Photographed. A temporary hoarding has been erected for the demolition works to the old Quayside Premises and a 3 Masted Square Rigged -Ship is Moored at the remainder of Trinity Quay ending at Shore Brae." D. Cameron, Bakers
442 A photograph of Mr D. Cameron on his horse and cart and outside his bakery and confectioners shop at 76 Skene Square.
This photograph was taken by Kidd & Stridgen of 33 New Market Gallery, Aberdeen.
A copy of this image was kindly lent to the Aberdeen City Libraries for reproduction by William Donald of Udny Green.
Local historian A. G. Duthie has been in touch to suggest that if we look at the Ordance Survey from 1902 (Aberdeenshire sheet 075.11), judging by the shape and position of the buildings, there is a plausible location for this building north of Skene Square School on the other side of the road. Frederick Street Primary School roof playground
453 A photograph showing school children on the roof top playground of Frederick Street Primary School in around 1907.
This was one of very few such playgrounds in the city, perhaps one of only two. The Central School on Schoolhill also had a comparable, roof-top playground for at least some of its history.
Frederick Street School opened in 1905 and had a role of 332 infants and 764 senior/junior pupils. The unusual, elevated playground measured 750 square feet. Castlegate looking down Union Street
490 Castlegate looking up Union Street. The Market Cross is on the right in front of the imposing North of Scotland Bank Buildings. The Athenaeum is the square building on the left. Castlegate, Aberdeen with the Market Cross in the foreground.
499 Castlegate, Aberdeen with the Market Cross in the foreground. The spire is that of the Tolbooth.
This photograph was taken prior to the construction of the Town House in 1868/74. The square building on the left is the Athenaeum designed by Archibald Simpson. The imposing building behind the Market Cross is the North of Scotland Bank. The 1867 Aberdeen Joint Station
537 This photograph shows the eastern side of the original 1867 Aberdeen Joint Station. The railway buildings can be seen at the front with the roof rising behind.
The history of the station can be discovered in the Great North of Scotland Railway Association's publication The Joint Station: Aberdeen Station, 1867-1992 (c1992).
In reference to the 1867 station, on page 18 it states:
"Designed by the City Architect, Mr Smith, various offices and rooms occupied the east side of the station, extending in a symmetrical manner along the entire frontage, in front of which ran a macadamised roadway eighty feet broad. The building's facade was of dressed ashlar granite quarried from Kenmay, surrounded by a balustrade of dressed freestone. The arched doors were also faced with finely dressed ashlar granite, again surrounded by freestone. The remainder of the buildings was of rustic granite interlined with courses and belts of ashlar freestone from Bannockburn. The main walls, which were thirty feet high, were finished off at the ends by square turrets about twenty feet high 'built of granite rustic work which gave the whole structure a most imposing appearance'. At its highest point the roof, designed by Mr Willet the Civil Engineer for the project, was about seventy feet above ground level and was stated as being modelled on Victoria Station, London."
The cranes and construction work that can be seen on the left side of this image suggest that it might date from the beginning of the 1913-1916 construction of the new Joint Station, overseen by GNSR Chief Engineer J. A. Parker. Foundations for the new station were laid in the cab yard to the east of the old structure on 28th May, 1913. Union Street
634 Towards the middle of the picture can be seen the distinctive square tower of John Smith's West St. Nicholas Kirk House built 1830-31. This drawing is prior to major developments to the junction with Union Terrace, the street on the left of the image.
Note the absence of The Northern Assurance Building on the corner. The building commonly called "The Monkey House" was built in 1885 by architect A. Marshall Mackenzie.
The building at the junction in this drawing is likely the townhouse of the Lumsden family of Belhevie. This would become the first home of the Northern Club in 1854.
In the centre of the image, on the left after Union Bridge, is the Aberdeen Hotel designed by Archibald Simpson and started in 1817. Gilcomston Steps
690 Gilcomston Steps, foot of Skene Square, in 1866. Part of old Gilcomston, these 18th century labourers' houses were known as "the rotten holes" and were among the very worst slums in the city, even by the standards of the mid 19th century. The end house with the sign was used as a smithy. All were demolished to make way for the Denburn Valley Railway, c.1866. 13 Skene Square
792 A photograph showing 13 Skene Square in the late 19th century. This tenement is thought to be the birthplace of the genre and portrait painter John Phillip (1817-1867).
The image is included as a plate in Historical Aberdeen: the Castle and the Castle-hill, the Snow Church, the Woolmanhill and neighbourhood, the Guestrow by G. M. Fraser (1905).
Fraser indicates that the tablet that can be seen above the door was put up in memory of John Phillip by his friend William Brodie (1815-1881), the sculptor.
Fraser elaborates as follows:
"The first plate on the house, 13 Skene Square, was placed there by William Brodie, the sculptor. that house was pulled down six years ago, but fortunately Mr George Watt, architect, the proprietor of the house erected on the spot, has, with much public spirit, placed a bronze tablet on the new house telling that Phillip's house stood on that site. I wish we could be absolutely certain that Phillip was born here. There can be no doubt that he lived here as a child, but it suggestive that in the detailed notices of Phillip in the Aberdeen papers at the time of his death, it was said that he was born in Windy Wynd, where his father was a shoemaker. See Aberdeen Journal, 6th March, 1867; Aberdeen Free Press, 1st March, 1867. The Fountain at Woodside
1066 The small square containing the Woodside Fountain at the junction of Hadden Street and Don Street has often been recognised as the centre of the burgh. The fountain was used as a place for animals to stop and drink from. The fountain also was used in more of a communal sense as teenagers were often seen "walking the mat", which meant walking from the fountain to the old tramway terminus at and back again. |