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Back Wynd Stair, The Green
1711 This lane is at the bottom of the stairs leading from Union Street down to The Green. The archway shown on the right of the photo leads to an unnamed pend while a smaller entrance between the two tall building led to Forbes Court. (Brian Kennedy, Aberdeen) The Town House under construction
1757 Discussions had been held in relation to the construction of new public buildings for the County and City of Aberdeen since the early 1860s.
Royal Assent was given to the Aberdeen County and Municipal Buildings Act 1866, which gave permission for a Court House for the County and City of Aberdeen; a hall for public meetings; a Town House for the City with offices for staff; a building for the accommodation of the Police Commissioners and their staff.
Plans were drawn up by the Edinburgh architects Peddie and Kinnear and work on the demolition of buildings on the site (including the old Town House) at the junction of Castle Street/Union Street and Broad Street began in 1867.
The offices in this section were occupied in January 1871. A lofty vestibule and broad circular stair led to the Town Hall and offices on the first and second storeys.
The architecture is of a medieval Flemish style which recalls Aberdeen's trading links with the Low Countries. The building was completed in 1874.
This image shows the partially completed building around 1869/70 when the 200-foot-high West Tower and one block had been completed - two more matching sections were still to be done. The Bridewell
2089 The Bridewell or West Prison, Rose Street - the Bridewell stood in Rose Street, off the west end of Union Street. This photo was taken by William Garey, about 1868, when the building was being demolished. Bridewell was a name adopted by many institutions and recalls a London building dedicated to St. Bride which became used as a House of Correction. This building, designed by James Burn, was opened on 2 October 1809, as a House of Correction. It was surrounded by a 14 foot high wall with a garden enclosed. The gateway had a porter's lodge and guardhouse attached. There were 5 floors with the topmost being the hospital and storerooms. Each floor was divided by a gallery which ran the whole length of the building with a large windos at each end. On one side of the gallery there were 11 cells for work and on the other side 14 cells used for sleeping. Each work cell had 2 long narrow windows, while the sleeping cells only had one window. When the new Court House and jail were built in 1819 and named the East Prison, the Bridewell eventually became known as the West Prison. By the 1860s, the East Prison was adequate to cater for the number of inmates and the West Prison was closed in 1864. The building was demolished and its site became the works of James Garvie and Sons, carpenters and cabinetmakers. Union Street, Aberdeen
2775 A Davidson Bros. "Real Photographic" Series postcard looking east up Union Street. The image likely dates from the early 20th century. Before the junction with Back Wynd can be seen the Queen's Restaurant at 120 Union Street and R. Hunter, Chemist at 118.
The building at the junction of Union Street and Back Wynd was initially built in 1837 to a design by John Smith. It was the first purpose built home of the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen.
Doreathea Bruce, in her history of the Society, explains that they sold the building in 1870 after construction of the the new, James Matthew designed, Advocates' Hall in Concert Court.
The old hall was bought by Lockhart & Salmond, confectioners, and later functioned as a restaurant and as a cinema. Bruce suggests the building became known as Queen's after it was decorated by City Architect John Smith shortly after Victoria's wedding to Prince Albert in 1840.
Her full history of the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen can be read in Aberdeen University Review, LVI, no. 195, Spring 1996. 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 Cinemas: West End / Playhouse
3415 An Aberdeen Journals Archive photograph of the Playhouse at 475 Union Street in January 1959. The venue originally opened on 12th November 1915 as a cinema called the West End. This was the first venture into full-time picture-hall proprietorship by James F. Donald, a key figure in the history of independent cinema exhibition in Aberdeen.
Donald was born in Newhills and came to Aberdeen for an apprenticeship with a coachbuilding firm. He had a varied career before coming to prominence as a highly successful dancing teacher. He was the leader of the Gondolier School of Dancing and Deportment.
He moved into the cinema business after acquiring the necessary projecting equipment and occupying a former billiard hall above the Aberdeen Dairy at 475 Union Street. Michael Thomson in Silver Screen in the Silver City (1988) describes the cinema as a "strictly utilitarian affair", but a successful one at that. It was only heated by stoves, and coupled with being above a diary, it became known as "The Tuppenny Freezer".
Donald's lease on the cinema expired in September 1920 and he was immediately followed as proprietor by Bert Gate's Aberdeen Picture Palaces. It was a time of expansion for the incoming company. They had recently purchased The Picturedrome on Skene Terrace and shortly looked to transform the West End. The latter closed on 2nd April and reopened on 14th September 1921 as the 1,000-seater Picture Playhouse.
The opening ceremony was attended by Gates, the cinema's architects George Sutherland and Clement George, and various local VIPs. The opening films were A Yankee in the Court of King Arthur, a comedy called Jerry on the Spot, Pathé news, and another short. Thomson states that Aberdeen Picture Palaces were "now the proud possessor of a large, well-situated 'flagship' house, and Union Street now sported a fine up-to-date cinema."
The design of the Playhouse was "classical" and up-market, in accordance with its prominent west-end location. As seen here, the Union Street entrance was surrounded by white Sicilian marble facings on a black marble base. The paybox was oval in shape with one end in the vestibule and the other in the front foyer.
The main foyer was through the Union Street part of the building and up a 12-feet wide carpeted, marble stairway. This way was a tea room called the Ingleneuk, the manager's office, and the ornately decorated auditorium. The plush new cinema represented competition for the nearby Picture House.
Bert Gates, the manager of the Playhouse, was somewhat sceptical of the talkies but fully embraced the new development in February 1930 with the installation of a full Western Electric sound system.
The opening of Aberdeen Picture Palace's Capitol down the road in 1933 saw a reduction in ticket prices at the Playhouse. The two partner cinemas were advertised at the time as "Aberdeen's Premier Pair".
On 23 May 1941 it was announced that James F. Donald (Aberdeen Cinemas) Ltd. had bought a controlling interest in Aberdeen Picture Palaces. This meant that the Playhouse, along with the other APP venues, were now in the Donald circuit of cinemas.
This photograph dates from 1959 shortly before the cinema was relaunched as the Playhouse Continental, showing popular, often more risqué, films from Europe. This only lasted for a couple of years and the cinema reverted to being the Playhouse in 1961. This photograph shows the cinema advertising The Wind Cannot Read with Dirk Bogarde and All for Mary.
By 1973 the profitability of the Playhouse was eroded by spiralling costs. The owners of the building, builders James Scott & Son, had moved premises and were looking to dispose of the Union Street property. The cinema's lease was terminated at the end of 1973 and the cinema closed on 9th May 1974. Ownership of the block passed to Devanha Properties Ltd. and after lying empty for a few months the Playhouse was demolished to make way for a new block of shops and offices.
[Information primarily sourced from Silver Screen in the Silver City (1988) by Michael Thomson]
Image © Aberdeen Journals Ltd. Aberdeen Cinemas: Queen's
3420 The building that housed the Queen's cinema 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.
After varied use as a restaurant, billiard hall, and salesroom, the building was converted into a cinema in 1913 by its then owner Robert J. Mackenzie. He shortly afterwards opened a companion cinema, also called the Queen's, in Stonehaven's Allardyce Street.
Michael Thomson in Silver Screen in the Silver City (1988) explains that by the late 1920s the Queen's Rooms Cinema Syndicate was struggling. In the spring of 1927 James F. Donald made an offer for a majority share interest in the company and this was accepted. On 24th July of that year, a re-seated and redecorated Queen's reopened under Donald's operation. This revitalised the venue and it became a popular picture house once more.
The cinema saw its first talking picture, So this is College, on 6th August 1930 and was advertised at the time as "The Finest and Clearest Talkie House in Town". A severe fire at the Queen's Cinema in 1936 led to the reconstruction of the building's interior. Thomson states that the granite outer shell was all that the rebuilt cinema, designed by architects George Watt & Stewart, had in common with its predecessor.
The Queen's was a popular cinema for much of the 20th century. This Aberdeen Journals Archive photograph shows the cinema in 1969 at its prominent location at the junction of Back Wynd and Union Street. Its large display boards are advertising screenings of the film Never Mention Murder.
[Information primarily sourced from Silver Screen in the Silver City (1988) by Michael Thomson]
Image © Aberdeen Journals Ltd. Aberdeen Cinemas: Coliseum / New Kinema / Belmont
3437 The cinema on Belmont Street had operated as the Belmont from 24th June 1935. On 4th January 1938 it was announced that James F. Donald (Aberdeen Cinemas) Ltd. had acquired a controlling share in Caledonian Theatres, who ran the Majestic on Union Street and the Belmont. Michael Thomson credits Caledonian Theatres' financial difficulties at this time to their inability to book the best films.
An organisation known as the Ship Contractors' and Ship Wrights' Association had a right to sell bond on the Belmont Street property that included both the cinema and the headquarters of the Aberdeen Trades Council. From 1946 onwards the aforementioned association tried to sell the property and this was contested by the Trades Council. This fight went all the way to the House of Lords but the Trades Council's appeal was dismissed in January 1949.
Caledonian Theatres had attempted to purchase the building outright from the Ship Contractors' and Ship Wrights' Association but this sale was interrupted by the Aberdeen Sheriff Court following an appeal from the Trades Council. In the end the building was sold to the NAAFI (Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes) in February 1952 to be converted into their new Aberdeen headquarters.
Following this sale, the Belmont cinema closed on down 29th March 1952. Its final film was The Steel Helmet an American film, directed by Samuel Fuller, about the Korean War.
In mid-1956 NAAFI moved its accounts operations out of Aberdeen and put the block up for sale. On 22nd April 1958 the Clydesdale Supply Co. Ltd. moved from premises at 111/2 Rose Street to the former Trades Hall and cinema at 49 Belmont Street. The large premises were employed as the warehouse for the company's wide range of clothing, household goods, furniture, radios, televisions and radiograms. Clydesdale appear to have occupied the building until around 1962.
This Aberdeen Journals Archive photograph from 1966 likely shows the building when it was unoccupied.
During the early 1980s the building was used as a carpet showroom. In October 1994 plans were announced by Aberdeen City Council to create a media centre at 49 Belmont Street. This included three cinema screens, educational facilities and a café bar. The building was converted for this purpose but funding could not be secured for its operation.
The revamped cinema finally opened as The Belmont Picturehouse in September 2000 and was operated by the Picturehouse company. This firm was later bought by Cineworld and had to relinquish the lease on The Belmont in adherence with competition law. In 2014, the Centre for the Moving Image was selected to take on its management and the much-loved cinema became the Belmont Filmhouse.
[Information primarily sourced from Silver Screen in the Silver City (1988) by Michael Thomson]
Image © Aberdeen Journals Ltd. Aberdeen Bon-Accord and Northern Pictorial - 1932 annual
528 The illustrated front cover of the Aberdeen Bon-Accord and Northern Pictorial 1932 special number.
The Aberdeen Bon-Accord and Northern Pictorial was published weekly from April 1926 until June 1959. It provided readers with news and sports items illustrated with high quality photographs.
The newspaper also published special annuals around December of each year. These would feature articles looking back at the events from the past 12 months.
This issue was published on 23rd December 1932 and features a somewhat Art Deco design. As indicated at the bottom of the page, the Aberdeen Bon-Accord and Northern Pictorial was at the time published by Henry Munro Ltd. of 22 Union Row, Aberdeen.
The tagline "With half a Century behind us" refers to the newspaper seeing itself as a continuation of the Bon-Accord newspaper first published on 3rd January 1880 by W. J. Clark, lithographer and printer at 7 Rettie's Court, 26 Broad Street.
Aberdeen City Libraries hold a bound copy of this special number in our Local Studies Reserve Stock. |