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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. Stop 2: Katherine Humphrey (died 1830), the Gibbetstane, on road outside the Tolbooth, Castlegate
2301 The rectangular set of cobblestones or cassies outside the Tolbooth on Castle Street marks the site of the gallows in the Castlegate. It was on this spot that Kate Humphrey was the last woman to be publicly hanged in 1830 for murdering her husband James. Kate ran a public house with him in the nearby Bool Road and warned the magistrates of the 'evils of drink' in her final moments of life before she 'looked doon Marischal Street' - the local term for being hanged. Her body was sent to Dr Alexander Munro's Dissecting Rooms in Edinburgh. Kate believed she had been cursed when she was struck on the breat by the knot of the hangman's rope while witnessing Jean Craig's execution in 1784. Elephant at Fidler's Well
2738 A photograph of a elephant drinking from Fidler's Well on Guild Street. The image featured in the Press & Journal of 14th May 1929 on their photograph page. It was captioned "Jumbo has a last drink" and suggested the elephant was shortly leaving Aberdeen. The animal was likely part of a circus travelling by train.
The well was at this time located on the south side of Guild Street near its junction with Market Street. The distinctive stonework of the Tivoli Theatre can just be seen on the right of this image. Aberdeen Cinemas: Grand Central
3432 An Aberdeen Journals Archive photograph of the Grand Central cinema at 286 George Street in September 1981. This photograph is taken from the end of Craigie Street.
The Grand Central was first opened on 3rd April 1922. The building at 286 George Street had previously been a furniture branch of Allan's Public Supply Stores. It was converted into a cinema by James F. Donald.
Michael Thomson explains that the Grand Central was initially very small and quite plain. In the late 1920s Donald acquired the property to the north of the cinema, plus the hall at its rear, and planned for its extension. In 1927 architect George Watt drew up plans for the enlarged cinema and these were enacted in the autumn of 1929.
The enlarged cinema reopened on 30th December 1929 with a ceremony led by Provost James Rust. The Grand Central's capacity had been increased from its original 730 to 1,640. Thomson states this was a good 400 more than any other hall in town.
Michael Thomson also states that the enlarged cinema was decorated in an "atmospheric" style and that it pointed the way to the super-cinemas that would soon arrive in the city. Bulldog Drummond was the cinema's first talking picture in 1930.
The Grand Central, after 59 years as a cinema, finally closed down on the same day as Union Street's Queen's Cinema on 17th October 1981. The latter showed Watership Down as its final film, whereas the Grand Central showed the more adult orientated double bill of Love, Lust and Ecstasy and More Danish Blue.
The Press and Journal reporting on the final screenings at both cinemas, records the staff at the Grand Central, led by manager Mr Anthony Veal, closing the cinema for the last time before heading to a nearby pub for a drink.
The Grand Central cinema was demolished in 1984 and replaced by a block of flats.
[Information primarily sourced from Silver Screen in the Silver City (1988) by Michael Thomson]
Image © Aberdeen Journals Ltd. Nuart 2017: The Green
3773 An artwork by German artists Herakut for the Nuart 2017 Festival that ran from 14th-16th April of that year.
The artwork is on the western, curved façade of the Indoor Market in the Green.
This photograph looks east and was taken on 14th July 2018. A food and drink festival is also shown taking place. Treasure 8: Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management
178 During 2015, Scotland celebrates the year of Food and Drink and this theme is continued as part of the Celebrate Aberdeen weekend in August. Keeping the theme in mind we would like to reveal "The Book of Household Management" by Mrs Isabella Mary Beeton, one of the most famous cookery books ever published.
Isabella Mayson was born on 12 March 1836 in London and it was whilst studying in Heidelberg she took to pastry making which she continued to practice at a local confectioners upon her return to England. In 1856, she married Samuel Beeton, a well-known editor and publisher and began to write articles on cooking and household management for the English Woman's Domestic Magazine.
In 1861, Beeton's Book of Household Management' was published. It was an immediate success, selling over 60,000 copies in its first year of publication and nearly two million by 1868.
Isabella died young at the age of 28 on 6 February 1865 of an infection following the birth of her fourth child but Samuel Beeton went on to publish a 2nd edition in 1869. In 1888 there was a major revision, with 27 new sections which included menus, table decorations, directions for using tinned meats and a section on American, Colonial and Continental cookery.
Aberdeen City Libraries hold a copy of this entirely new edition and it is numbered "five hundred and fifty-eighth thousand". It is 1644 pages in length with 13 beautiful colour plates and 68 full page illustrations. It includes a section on menus for all seasons with menus in both English and French. It is an absolute treasure and a tribute to Mrs Beeton that a version is still reproduced today. Treasure 55: Punch
230 The first edition of the satirical magazine Punch was published on 17 July 1841. The title being derived from a conversation between the founders who claimed that - just as the alcoholic drink of the same name - the magazine would be nothing without Lemon (Punch's first editor was named Mark Lemon).
Despite a difficult start of low circulation figures, the success of the magazine was ensured with the decision to publish an annual edition, or Almanack. Copies of these soared and shortly after the magazine was taken over by the printing firm of Bradbury and Evans whereupon it entered its golden age.
Modern satirical magazines - such as Private Eye or the French publication Charlie Hebdo - often purposefully push the boundaries of good taste in order to land a searing political blow of maximum impact. In the Victorian age, Punch attempted to capture the mood of the public in tasteful, yet no-less provocative terms.
Punch frequently used illustrations to highlight contemporary problems in a stark visual manner. So much so in fact, that it can claim to have changed the English language in the process. The original definition of the word cartoon meant simply a preliminary drawing for a work of art - similar to "sketch" - with no additional meaning. However, the word took on the additional connotation of being applied to humour with the publication of Punch's 'Cartoon No.1 - Substance and Shadow'.
The enduring popularity of the magazine is in many ways, inextricably linked to its own downfall. With changing appetites for publications and satire, Punch desperately needed to keep re-inventing itself, but seen by many as a national institution, change was far from easy. Eventually the magazine succumbed to the pressure of low circulation and finally ceased publication in 2002, leaving behind 160 years of humour and wit.
Punch's lasting legacy is a snapshot of opinion on some key historic events from the preceding decades - notably including coronations, scandals, wars, budgets, coalitions and many other subjects high on the political agenda. The Last Speech and Confession of Alex Martin
480 This broadside recalls the execution of Alex Martin at Aberdeen on 27th August 1824. It provides a brief biography of him, before providing his dying confession. Martin was executed for the crime of stouthrief, a crime he had committed in Kemnay, close to Aberdeen. This was the Scottish crime of 'overpowering or depriving by force a man of his property.' He was tried for his crime in Edinburgh at the High Court of Justiciary earlier in the year.
During Martin's confinement, he had been visited by various clergymen, with whom he had engaged in severe penitence. The broadside makes reference to Rev. Mr. Thom, Ordinary of the Prison, Rev. Dr. James Kidd (1761-1834), Rev. Mr. Pennan and Rev. Mr. Lyon. Later in the broadside, Martin also thanks Mr. George Turreff, Mr. Alex. Brown, jailor, John Gray, under-turnkey, and Mr. John Fyfe, messenger.
The broadside's account of Martin's life states that when at school, he had lost father. His mother then lost all control over him, and Martin was devoid of any sentiment of righteousness. 'Abandoned to profligacy and vice', Martin led a life of violent crime. He had previously been found to have assaulted a girl in Edinburgh.
On the day of his execution, various prayers were delivered. On the thirty-two-year-old Martin reaching the scaffold, he delivered a lengthy sermon to the crowds in attendance on the evils of 'sabbath-breaking' and bad company. The broadside reports that he did not faulter when speaking. After he finished praying, he gave the signal that he was ready. He did not die immediately, but appeared to suffer a great deal, convulsing as he hang.
In the confession itself, Martin repeatedly refers to his sin of excessive drinking. He describes a 'wicked inclination' that led him to drink, which was the cause of many of his crimes, 'which perhaps I would not have committed if I had kept sober.' Martin asks that his experience be a warning to those who excessively drink.
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