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Castle Street
673 A view of the buildings at Castle Street prior to their demolition for the construction of the new Town House (1867-1874) designed by Peddie and Kinnear.
The entrance to Broad Street is visible in the left foreground. The entrance further on is to Huxter's Row, which turned west and ran behind these building to exit on Broad Street. The Lemon Tree Hotel and the Bon-Accord Hotel were located on this lane. The former soon moved to 7-9 St. Nicholas Street.
Past the fortified facade of the Tolbooth, and its prominent spire, can be seen the entrance to Lodge Walk and Archibald Simpson's North of Scotland Bank premises, opened in 1842.
The signs in the shop windows likely give notice of imminent closure. A sign for Alexander Badenoch, an outfitter, can be seen at 12 Union Street. Further down, at what is likely Chapman and Co., tailors and clothiers, "Great bargains" are advertised.
In addition to the gas lamps and pollards, there is array of traffic on the cobbled street. Two night watchmen stand talking on the left. A Gordon Highlander, presumably coming from the nearby Castlehill Barracks, is outside Badenoch's shop. Two fishwives carry leaden creels to market. A large dog sleeps outside Chapman and Co. and various horse drawn vehicles are shown. Lemon Tree Hotel, Huxter Row
679 Lemon Tree Hotel, Huxter Row, off Castle Street, which was demolished to make way for the Town House in the 1870s. The title was transferred to a house in St. Nicholas Street and more recently to the Lemon Tree arts venue in West North Street.
Huxter Row was a narrow street running from Broad Street, parallel with Union Street, to the old Town House and then joining Union Street at right angles. The street derived its name because of the booths of hucksters - small traders. Prince Philip at the Rowett Institute
2623 Prince Philip planting a tree at the Rowett Institute, accompanied by institute officials, and watched by a seated audience. The two people behind him are E. M. Wright and Kenneth Lyon Blaxter. Treasure 54: On the Planting of Trees in Towns
229 Aberdeen was something of a pioneer when it came to the planting of street trees in Scotland. An article on the subject in the Aberdeen Journal from 1905 states: "As is constantly remarked by visitors, Aberdeen has great reason to be proud of its trees. In some respects, it can, in this direction, show the way to other Scottish cities."
Alongside St. Andrews, Aberdeen led the way in the extensive and effective planting of trees on city streets. This was largely due to the work of Aberdeen's first park superintendent, Robert Walker. The 1905 article states: "To those who know Mr Walker only as the busy man in charge of Victoria and Westburn Parks, the Union Terrace Gardens, the Links, and the grounds of Robert Gordon's College, the fact of his being an author may be new, but it is something to which Mr Walker can look back with pride, because the publication of 'On the Planting of Trees in Towns' was the means of stimulating the movement for tree-planting, not only in Aberdeen, but also in a good many more places in Scotland."
Walker's book, printed in 1890 at the University of Aberdeen, consists of two papers read before The North of Scotland Horticultural Association in 1889. The volume was issued by the two Aberdeen members of Mr Ruskin's Guild of Saint George after a strong request to publish was made by those unable to attend Walker's lectures. The book argues that trees should be planted not just in parks, but in city streets too: "The slight good effected by fine parks placed here or there towards the outskirts of a city is as nothing to what might be carried out by so planning and planting streets and roads, that the air might be comparatively pure and free, and the eye refreshed with green at almost every point."
The Aberdeen Journal states that the value of the book is "very much materially enhanced by illustrations of a number of our best-known trees from drawings from Sir George Reid, lithographed by Messrs Thomson and Duncan." George Reid (1841-1913) was a nationally renowned Aberdeen-born painter. A year after the publication of the book, in 1891, he was elected as the president of the Royal Scottish Academy and knighted by Queen Victoria. In 1905 he played a significant role in the extension of Aberdeen Art Gallery, determining the layout and contents of the building. He died at his home in Somerset in 1913 and was buried in St Peter's Cemetery, Aberdeen.
On the publication of Walker's book a copy was send to keen arboriculturist and habitual Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone. The 1905 Aberdeen Journal article reports that, in his acknowledgement of the gift, Gladstone wrote that "he would read the book with the greatest pleasure, the subject being one in which he took a special interest." At the time, the post card with acknowledgment could still be seen framed in Mr Walker's house. The Journal article also states that the book has been unobtainable for a long time but that a copy is available to view at the Reference Department of the Public Library. Over a hundred years later this is still correct and the item now sits in our Local Studies collection.
"Trees not only afford shade and shelter," states Walker's book "but adorn the landscape and purify the air. They improve the heart as well as the taste; they refresh the body and enlighten the spirit. And the more refined the taste is, the more exquisite is the gratification that may be enjoyed from every leaf-building tree." Grand reform meeting held at Aberdeen, 18th May 1832
530 A colourised lithographed sketch of the Grand Reform Meeting that took place on Broad Hill, Aberdeen on Friday 18th May 1832.
Popular and parliamentary support for electoral reform had been growing across the United Kingdom in this period. At the time, only a small number of wealthy landowners had the right to vote, the franchise was geographically inconsistent, and the representation by members of parliament was out-dated.
This Aberdeen meeting, like many that took place around the country at the time, was organised following the House of Lords blocking the Third Reform Bill of Prime Minister Charles Grey (1764-1845), 2nd Earl Grey, and the subsequent resignation of Grey and his Whig ministers.
Newspaper accounts of the meeting indicate that attendees had just learnt that the Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), a Tory opponent to reform, had been unable to form a government following the resignation of the Whigs and an invitation from King William IV, and that the monarch had recalled Earl Grey.
Organised by prominent local supporters of electoral reform, the Reform Committee, the meeting agreed seven resolutions for presentation to parliament including the following: consternation at the bill not being passed, support of Earl Grey and colleagues, agreement to withholding national supplies (funding) from the government until the bill is passed, and that Joseph Hume (1777-1855), then MP for Middlesex, present the petition instead of the member for the Aberdeen boroughs, Horatio Ross (1801-1886), who was accused of backsliding on reform.
The report in the following day's Aberdeen Chronicle newspaper suggest the meeting was attended by 30,000 to 40,000 people. The Tory-leaning Aberdeen Journal, in its issue of Wednesday 23rd May 1832, page 2, gives an estimate of 15,000 to 20,000.
Contingents of various trades began to muster at Union Street West at about 1.30pm. A large procession proceeded east along the street and were joined by the Reform Committee from the Royal Hotel, 63 Union Street, located just after the junction with Market Street.
The full procession, with the Committee at its head and joined by deputations from the country, travelled to the Links via Castle Street, King Street, Frederick Street and Constitution Street. Several bands accompanied the procession and there were a large number of banners with reform slogans.
On the motion of Reverend William Jack (1768-1854), principal of King's College, Sir Michael Bruce of Stenhouse and Scotstown (1798-1862) was called to chair the meeting. John Angus (1799-1878), an advocate and later Town Clerk of Aberdeen, was the secretary.
Speakers included General Andrew Leith Hay of Rannes (1785-1862), Alexander Bannerman (1788-1864), Sir John Forbes of Craigievar (1785-1846), Alexander Blackie, banker, Thomas Burnett, younger of Leys (1778-1849), John M. Gerrard of Midstrath, Alexander Kilgore, surgeon, James Forbes of Echt, Alexander Stronach of Drumallan, James Nicol, advocate, William Allardyce, wine merchant, Harry Leith Lumsden of Auchindour, William Moir of Park and Alexander Forbes of Ainslie.
Both the account in the Aberdeen Chronicle and the speeches on the day remark on the disruptive potential of the crowd, under circumstances of reform not being progressed. Though the speakers urged those in attendance to continue in a peaceful manner.
Some speakers compared the fight for electoral reform to that for religious freedom in Scotland. There is explicit and repeated support given for William VI, but the Duke of Wellington is considered an inappropriate progressor of reform. The return of Earl Grey is promoted.
Faced with the prospect of William VI ennobling new Whig members of the House of Lords, Tory opponents of the Third Reform Bill abstained from votes and it passed through the upper house. The Representation of the People Act 1832 was given royal assent on 7th June 1832, and its Scottish equivalent around the same time, and came into law.
The Act was a substantial reform of Britain's antiquated electoral system, redistributing seats and changing the conditions of the franchise, but still left most people without the vote. Subsequent popular and parliamentary politics would led to further legislation and the fuller suffrage of modern times.
Document dimensions: 26 x 40 cm. |