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Bowling green in Westburn Park
1560 On the opposite side of Westburn Road from Victoria Park, this popular area was formerly a residential property and contains some fine specimens of oak, ash, elm and sycamore trees. It was acquired by the Town Council in 1899 and extends to fully 25 acres. Facilities are provided for bowling and tennis, as well as for children's games. Altogether, the estate greatly enhances the amenities of the city. A School of Dolphins: Cookie at Bucksburn Library
2157 Inspiration came from both the dolphin project workshop we received and the children's wish to involve the Commonwealth Games theme this summer. The children also liked the idea of the languages because several of the children were born outside of Scotland. Finally the kids of Brimmond Primary School wanted to convey a message about keeping our seas clean. A School of Dolphins: Como at Mastrick Library
2170 Inspired by the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Como was designed by taking inspiration from the mascot for Scotland. A School of Dolphins: Brewster at Tillydrone Library
2173 A class designed dolphins and then held a vote to see which design was the best. The winning design consists of the Scottish Saltire Flag because this year is really important for Scotland - the Commonwealth Games, the Independence Referendum to name a few. It also includes the Kittybrewster school emblem. Acknowledgments
2364 How Aberdeen Women's Alliance City Centre Heritage Walk developed:
Following the group's involvement with Women of Scotland's Mapping Memorials to Women website (http://www.womenofscotland.org.uk/), with our partners at Glasgow Women's Library (http://www.womenslibrary.org.uk/),
at the Central Library in February 2013, we felt there was a number of women in Aberdeen who have made an important and significant contribution to the life of our city that we rarely ever hear about.
This inspired a group of volunteers to develop the Aberdeen City Centre Women's Heritage Walk.
By creating this virtual version of the walk we aim to share the many stories of these wonderful women and their achievements with as many people as possible. We also aimed to enrich the account of these women by recording, and making available, the fascinating memories of members from community members.
How to get involved:
Aberdeen women's history is still largely unwritten and not visible to the public. There are many ways women can get involved with us to address this. You are welcome help us with research or join our tour guide teams. If you have information that can be added to this walk, suggestions of how it can be improved, or memories you would like to share - we want to hear from you!
How to contact us:
Email: awainfo@btinternet.com
Postal address:
Aberdeen Women's Alliance
c/o Equalities team
Aberdeen City Council
Marischal College
Broad Street
Aberdeen
AB10 1AB
Many thanks to our virtual tour partners:
Aberdeen City Council and Aberdeen City Libraries
And special thanks to:
Aberdeen Local Studies MAIDINVINYL Records and Plan 9
2668 A photograph taken at the bottom of Rosemount Viaduct, on 24th January 2018, showing two local Aberdeen shops; MAIDINVINYL Records and Plan 9.
MAIDINVINYL Records, 7 Rosemount Viaduct, opened at these premises in April 2017 and sell a large selection of new and second hand records. On their website they state that "we believe that vinyl records are one of the greatest inventions ever made. They present music fans with one of the purest form of sound that any format of recorded music has offered."
Next door at 9 Rosemount Viaduct is the longstanding comic shop, Plan 9. Its name references both its building number and an Ed Wood cult film from 1959. The shop sells a large range of comics, graphic novels, toys, board games and related items. Hamilton Place, Looking West
2732 A postcard of Hamilton Place likely dating from the early 20th century. The view looks west from the juntion with Westfield Road. The house on the left foreground appears to be 8 Hamilton Place. A small part of 3 Hamilton Place can be seen across the road.
Correspondent Urlan Wannop, a former resident at 41 Hamilton Place, shared his memories about this place:
"My family lived in Hamilton Place between 1935 and 1948. The trees have since been removed, but on warm summer evenings we played ball games in the street before cars became prevalent. The trees stood in for stumps for games of cricket. In wartime, snow clearance for the very few motor cars and steam powered coal delivery wagons meant walls of snow at the pavement edge. I still have weights cast from lead left when all garden railings were removed in an abortive attempt to build tanks and ships for the war effort. (...)
[The] photograph precedes the wartime removal of railings. For historical record, the photograph was possibly taken in the 1920's, judging by the motor car in the background, the presence of the railings and the trees being less fully grown than in the days when they stood in as wickets for street games of cricket.
No sign of the knife grinders, bicycles of visiting French onion sellers nor of the street singer that progressed down Hamilton Place. All disappeared except from my memory.
The wartime Lord Provost, Tommy Mitchell - of Mitchell and Muil, the bakers - lived in a house at the near left; my Headmaster at the Grammar School, JJ Robertson, lived in one at the near right. Like me, he would walk to school down Craigie Loanings". Bridge Street
2761 This photograph shows two longstanding establishments on Aberdeen's Bridge Street.
At number 6 is The Bridge Bar, a public house that appears to date from the late 19th century. It is a traditional pub with an unusually high ceiling. For a long time it was a men-only bar prior to anti-discrimination legislation introduced in 1975. Though women are now welcome in the pub, it does not have a women's toilet.
Next door at 8 Bridge Street is what was considered to be Aberdeen's earliest Chinese restaurant. Yangtze River opened at this location in the 1960s and closed down around late 2017.
This photograph was taken on 14th July 2018. A. McRobb, plumber & electrician
2904 A collated group portrait from 1928 of the staff of Andrew McRobb, a then prominent plumbing and electrician business in Aberdeen. McRobb himself is pictured in the middle at the top.
The print features a inscription reading "by the employees, as a mark of esteem on the occasion of his acquiring Central Premises 27, 28, 29 Adelphi."
The Aberdeen Post Office directory from 1928-29 indicates that McRobb also had a branch at 103 Market Street and his home address was 24 Murray Terrace. In the directory he is described as a plumber, gasfitter, electrical and sanitation engineer.
The print includes a small photograph of the new premises in the Adelphi. In 2018 the shown shopfront is occupied by Asylum, a retailer of comics, graphic novels and roleplaying games.
McRobb took an active part in Aberdeen civic life and his profession. In May 1935 he was elected as the president of the Scottish Federation of Plumbers' and Domestic Engineers Association (Press & Journal, 11/05/1935, p. 8). He was also later a councillor for the Ferryhill Ward, a Town Council baillie, and elder and Sunday school superintendent at Trinity Church (Evening Express, 13/03/1952, p. 12).
The portraits in this print were taken and compiled by prominent Aberdeen photographer Fred W. Hardie. At the time he had premises at 416 Union Street and 8 Justice Mill Lane.
This print was kindly donated to Aberdeen Local Studies by David Parkinson. His grandfather, David Charles Kelly Parkinson, can be seen by counting four portraits to the right from the bottom right and then three up. His portrait is just down and left from a symbol showing two tools of the trade. The Green, 1995
2976 This is one of a series of images kindly donated to Aberdeen Local Studies by our colleagues in the Masterplanning, Design and Conservation Team. The images show the Green in 1995 before, during and after a programme of environmental improvements.
This image looks north west and shows T. Strachan, a butcher, and Underground, a comics and games shop. The Back Wynd Stairs are also visible. Aberdeen Cinemas: Casino
3410 An Aberdeen Journals Archive photograph of the Casino cinema in around 1963.
The Casino cinema was opened on Wales Street on 7th February 1916 by John Peter Kilgour, a dealer in various waste materials. It had close competition with Bert Gate's Star Picture Palace just around the corner on Park Street. Michael Thomson in The Silver Screen in the Silver City describes the Casino as the second of Aberdeen's purpose-built picture halls. It and the "Starrie" served the population of the city's east end for many years.
The Casino was built on the site of Kilgour's factory yards. The architects for the project were George Sutherland and Clement George. The building's "Spanish villa" design is described by Thomson as unique for Aberdeen and highly unusual throughout Scotland. One distinctive feature was the low square tower at the Park Street side of the building that was topped by a red-tiled concave pyramidal roof. Thomson writes that features of the building combined to "bring a welcome splash of colour and gaiety to an otherwise drab corner of the city."
Following the death of John Peter Kilgour in 1920, the running of the Casino and his waste business was taken over by his son, Ormande L. Kilgour.
In the silent era the venue was a stronghold of cine-variety, showing all manner of performances in-between film screenings. In February 1936 the cinema celebrated its 20th birthday and a cake was cut by Kilgour and one the Casino's oldest patrons, a Mrs Stewart.
In November 1939 Bert Gates and Aberdeen Picture Palaces bought a controlling interest share in the Casino. The Beach Boulevard, which opened on 25th May 1959, ran directly outside the cinema and gave the Casino a prominent location. In March of that year the cinema was given a thorough renovation.
Despite its new prominent location and recent renovation, the Casino closed down as a cinema on Saturday 3rd October 1959. A spokesperson for the Donald Cinemas Group stated in the Evening Express at the time that the closure was due to the housing in the area being pulled down and people moving to new estates. Michael Thomson suggests that the proximity of the relatively new first-run Regal in Shiprow might also have drawn away the hoped-for holiday crowds from the Casino.
In 1961 the empty Casino was sold to local bookmakers James Rennie and Arthur Forbes to be used as a bingo hall. This was at the height of bingo's popularity and the Casino proved too small. The bingo operation was moved to the Kingsway Cinema which had showed its final film, Warlord of Crete on 3rd February 1962.
The area around the Casino was earmarked for redevelopment by Aberdeen Town Council. The cinema building was compulsorily purchased and, after spending some time as a store, was demolished at the same time as the Star in 1971. The site is now occupied by a residential development.
[Information primarily sourced from Silver Screen in the Silver City (1988) by Michael Thomson]
Image © Aberdeen Journals Ltd. 25-87 George Street (rear of)
4307 A photograph showing the area behind 25-29 George Street in around 1986 or 1987.
This image is one of a series taken by Aberdeen City Council to record buildings prior to the redevelopment of the area and construction of the Bon Accord shopping centre.
This area, located between George Street and Harriet Street, was accessible via pends on Schoolhill and Loch Street, including Donald's Close and Ross's Close.
Large scale historical Ordnance Survey maps indicate there were stables and considerable housing in this area in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Notably, this was the location of Wordie's carting contractors, to which the stables would have been associated. The close was colloquially known as the "Donalder" or Wordie's Close, due to the business. Another notable business was Coffee Currs, known for its welcome aroma. (Evening Express, 21 July 1993, page 8).
By the mid-20th century this area had been significantly cleared and, as shown here, was primarily used for parking.
The space is now occupied by the south west corner of the Bon Accord Centre. Treasure 14: What's On in Aberdeen (1960s)
184 What was happening in Aberdeen over 50 years ago?
In Local Studies we have a great collection of "What's On in Aberdeen guides", the earliest of which is an "Aberdeen Events" leaflet covering March to August 1952. Our collection does have a few gaps but continues from the 1950s right through to 2008.
From the guides we get a fascinating insight into the variety of events and activities throughout the decades available to both Aberdonians and visitors.
What can you find listed in the What's On? - Cinema and Theatre guide, Dancing, General events and information, Holiday attractions, City Parks, Musical events, Sport, Highland Games & Agricultural Shows in and around Aberdeen, Places of interest, Club programmes and always a city map to help you find your way around. Plenty to choose from!
The events leaflet was published by Aberdeen Corporation Publicity Department who from March 1956, renamed the publication "What's On?" and changed the style and format to the colour booklet we can see in the image. The booklet now also included advertisements for shops, restaurants, hotels, and businesses all of which contribute to building up a picture of the social, economic and retail scene in Aberdeen back then.
From November 1969 a more slender version of the guide was produced and published by different departments of the City Council - Public Relations, Information & Tourism, and Development & Tourism - until April 1989 when the Aberdeen Tourist Board took it on.
From 2000 onwards it was commercially published as "Your Ideal Guide to What's On in and around Aberdeen" and ceased publication round about 2008.
Treasure 28: Patents for inventions - Abridgments of specifications
201 This month we are delighted to welcome the visit of the PATLIB (Patent Library) UK Annual General Meeting to Aberdeen. The meeting is taking place for the first time in Scotland. The PATLIB UK network consists of 15 libraries & information centres, including Aberdeen City Libraries, which provide an intellectual property information service at a local level to the local business community and members of the public.
Aberdeen Central Library has a long and proud history of providing access to and information on patents and other intellectual property related subject areas. The Reading Room of the new Central Library building opened in 1892 on Rosemount Viaduct was situated on the ground floor. A floor plan of the Reading Room floor published in the 1892 'Manual for Readers' by the Librarian Alexander Robertson includes a 'Patents Room'.
The large print based collection of patent literature formerly held by Aberdeen City Libraries has long been dispersed. We have however retained our collection of volumes of British patent abridgements dating from 1619 - 1883 one of which is this volume published in 1882 containing abridgements of specifications on writing instruments and materials. The abridgements, dating from 1867 - 1876, include an abridgement of the above mentioned specification.
Back in 1871 when our patent specification example was sealed, there was little prospect of the 'happy day' occurring in July 1892 when Andrew Carnegie officially opened the new library building. Prior to 1892 attempts to establish a Public Library in the City had met with repeated failure. On the 4th July 1871, just a little after five months our patent specification was sealed at the end of January of the same year, at a Public Meeting of Householders, a resolution for the non-adoption of the Public Libraries Act in the City was unanimously adopted. It was not until 1884 that the Public Libraries Act would be adopted in Aberdeen. Treasure 53: An Account of Pedestrianism
228 National Walking Month takes place in May and is promoted by the UK charity Living Streets. Their aim is to encourage people to see walking as a natural choice and they hope to see a reduction in health problems, congestion and pollution, and social isolation while boosting local communities by bringing high streets to life. Specific events such as Walk to School Week and Walk to Work Week are also held during this month.
One of the books in our Local Studies collection describes the exploits of walkers in the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1813, Walter Thom published 'Pedestrianism; or, An account of the performances of celebrated pedestrians during the last and present century; with a full narrative of Captain Barclay's public and private matches; and an essay on training.'
Pedestrianism was the term used for competitive walking races which were extremely popular as a spectator sport in the 18th and 19th centuries, both in indoor and outdoor venues, not only in Britain but also in America, Canada and Australia. Large sums of money could be won and betting on the results was prolific.
Walter Thom came from Bervie in Kincardineshire but moved to Aberdeen in the early 1800s where he published The History of Aberdeen in 1811. He then moved to Edinburgh for a short time before travelling to Ireland where he became editor firstly of the Dublin Correspondent and later of The Dublin Journal. He died in Dublin in 1824.
In his preface to Pedestrianism, Thom explains that his choice of subjects treated in the volume will deserve attention of all classes "as exercise conduces so much to the strength and soundness of both body and mind".
He discusses the Olympic Games and gymnastic exercises as practised by the ancient Greeks before moving to "modern pedestrianism" which he claims "affords the best species of exercise, and may be said to include much that is valuable to mankind". He describes feats of pedestrianism from the 1700s and 1800s, which included races over a period of days or those which only lasted one or two hours.
Treasure 70: Official Report of the Fourth Olympiad, London, 1908
270 To celebrate the 31st modern Olympic Games taking place in Rio 2016, we have chosen a treasure which sheds some light on how the games have evolved over time by looking at the official report of the 4th Olympiad, held in London in 1908.
Originally scheduled to take place in Rome, the Italian organisers declared themselves unable to host the competition, citing amongst other reasons, an eruption of Mount Vesuvius. As the runner-up in the award of the 1908 Games selection, it was proposed that they be held in London instead.
The London Olympics of 1908 was the first to feature a purpose-built stadium and set the standard for all future Games. Another Olympic first was the fact that the sports arena included a swimming tank, whereas previous swimming competitions had taken place in open water. It also fixed the official distance of the modern marathon at 26 miles and 385 yards - the additional yards being added to ensure the finish line was in front of the Royal Box.
The Summer Olympics of 1908 featured 2,008 athletes from 22 countries. By comparison, Rio de Janeiro will host over 10,000 male and female athletes from 207 nations, and feature 306 events in 28 Olympic sports.
The 1908 Games were hailed as a great success - particularly considering the short preparation time, and they founded several key features of modern Olympic Games.
View our touchscreens to find out more about the controversies of the 1908 Olympics, and some of the record-breaking medal winners. Stewart Park
308 Opened in 1894, Stewart Park was named after the then Aberdeen Lord Provost, David Stewart. The area was land acquired from the Hilton Estate and was designed to be used by all ages. Three disused quarries were filled in and landscaped as small lakes stocked with fish.
Mrs Taylor, a widow of a Woodside merchant, left £500 to the park, especially for the purpose of becoming the Taylor Playground for children, in memory of her husband. Mrs Taylor was honoured with the memorial fountain by the Aberdeen Town Council.
Although the park may not have the small lakes, and fewer flower beds than when it first opened, it is still widely used, and as stated by the Lord Provost at the opening ceremony "It would be a thing of joy and beauty forever" to the people of Woodside.
Soon after the opening of Stewart Park, cricket clubs were formed. The park was home to many clubs, and memories of the park suggest that as many as twenty games of cricket would be in play at any one time. These games obviously paid off because Woodside Cricket Club won the Aberdeenshire Cup in 1957.
Other popular pursuits were the Woodside Football Club, the Grandholm Choir and the Woodside and District Cycling Club. The Cycling Club began in the early 30's, but had to disband during the Second World War. After the war, Joe Dunn, a cycle shop owner and a previous member, tried to restart the club.
This image is a James Valentine postcard. Treasure 105: Sir John Anderson Library Medal
326 The story of Sir John Anderson and his Woodside Library is told in "The Admirable Mechanic by Moira Anderson", published by Aberdeen City Libraries in 1983.
On the back cover is a photograph of the Anderson Library Medal given to every pupil at Woodside School to mark the inauguration of the Woodside Library and the Scholar's Library in 1881, both of which were housed temporarily in the Headmaster's Room at the school until a purpose-built library could be constructed.
The medal was presented to the Library in August 1983 and now forms part of the Anderson Library Archive held in Local Studies. We can take a look at the history of Woodside Library through some of the other items held in the collection.
Woodside Library opened on 15 October 1883 and was described By Patrick Morgan in The Annals of Woodside as "the most beautiful and valuable institution in the Burgh of Woodside, containing a wealth of literature, which is difficult to estimate". The library was a gift to the people of Woodside by the noted engineer, Sir John Anderson.
Over the years there was a noticeable decline in the use of the library with lack of funds to purchase new stock, no room for expansion and no separate Reading Room. Eventually, ownership of Woodside Library was transferred to the City Council and The Sir John Anderson Branch Library Woodside comprising a Lending Library, Reading Room with games tables, Juvenile Library and Reading Room was opened by Lord Provost Rust on 19 January 1932 and regarded as the largest and most complete Branch in the System.
To learn more about the interesting history of this unique library, have a browse in the Treasures from our Collections interactive exhibition. Treasure 125: Tivoli Posters
348 In 2017, we celebrate 145 years since the Tivoli Theatre was built. Known at that time as Her Majesty's Theatre, this place of entertainment delighted generations of Aberdonians with its shows by artists well known on local and national scales. Many companies used to come back season after season, receiving a warm welcome every time from an enthusiastic audience. Over the years, Aberdeen City Libraries has built up a varied collection of many posters and ephemera of this extraordinary theatre.
Showcasing these posters allows us to look closer into the history of one of Aberdeen's most famous cultural venues.
To see some more posters from the Tivoli and learn about its rich history, check out our interactive exhibition on the touchscreen! |