4

George Washington Wilson's photographic works at St. Swithin Street, showing the female workers laying out the glass plates to dry in the sun.

7

In 1838, the North of Scotland Bank purchased the New Inn and other properties at the corner of Castle Street and King Street. The architect Archibald Simpson was invited to submit plans for the Bank's Head Office on the cleared site. This is a photograph of one of his designs which was not accepted. It shows a building with a curved corner topped with a dome and Corinthian columns running through the first and second floors supporting a pediment over an elaborate cornice. The plan which was adopted also had three storeys but the entrance was a Corinthian portico at the corner topped with an open platform with a terracotta sculpture group by James Giles, representing Ceres, goddess of plenty.

9

The premises of George Washington Wilson, photographer, in St. Swithin Street.

10

The Palace Hotel, Union Street. Built 1874 for Messrs Pratt and Keith, milliners, who occupied the street level area, it operated as one of a chain of LNER hotels. Its upper stories were destroyed by fire on 31 October 1941 with loss of life, and the building was entirely demolished after the war.

12

A George Washington Wilson photograph showing Aruacarias (monkey puzzle trees) outside what is likely South Stocket Cottage. This building was located about 100 metres to the west of the junction of Moray Place and South Stock Road, on the north side of the latter. The upper part of South Stocket Road, on which this building stood, was also known as High South Stocket Road. As Aberdeen developed to the west, the street name of South Stocket Road was progressively replaced by Beechgrove Terrace, from Rosemount Place to Fountainhall Road, and, to the west of that, by King's Gate. The beginning of this development and the renaming of the street is detailed in the article 'Extension of the city' in the Aberdeen Weekly Journal of 25th April 1877, page 4. See also G. M. Fraser's book Aberdeen Street Names (1911) for further discussion of streets named in reference to the Stocket Forest. This photograph likely dates from the latter half of the 19th century. Since this time, South Stocket Cottage has been demolished. The 25 inch to a mile Ordnance Survey map sheet revised to 1923/24 indicates that the building stood until at least then. Ordnance Survey maps show a house initially called Kingsgate having been built around 60 metres to the north west of this cottage between roughly 1867 and 1899. By the 1920s mapping, this house was named Kingshill and it remains under this name at 160 King's Gate at the time of writing in 2024. This image looks west across the southern elevation of South Stocket Cottage.

13

Old houses skirting St. Nicholas churchyard once formed part of the south side of Schoolhill. They were demolished in 1884-85 as part of a street widening scheme and the present wall and railing stand in their place. On the other side of Schoolhill (centre) can be seen the roof and turrets of George Jamesone's House, demolished in 1886. The book Aberdeen in Byegone Days: Views of Streets and Buildings, etc. with Letterpress Description (1910) by Robert Anderson (page 26) suggests that the building in the centre of this image was the home of Burnett Carr, the grave-digger and assistant to the sexton of St. Nicholas Church. Newspaper references indicate that Carr, a well known figure, died on 31st May 1844 (Aberdeen Journal, 5th June 1844, page 3, column 2). This photograph looks north and shows the back of Carr's old house.

14

St. Nicholas Bells, 1887. The great fire of 1874 swept through the East Kirk of St. Nicholas, totally destroying the oak and lead steeple and sending the great bells crashing to the ground. A decade later, the citizens of Aberdeen combined to replace the bells with a great peal of bells cast in Belgium. The bells arrived at Aberdeen Station on May 11th 1887 and were paraded through the city with great pomp and ceremony.

15

St. Machar's Cathedral, Old Aberdeen

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

17

St. Machar's Cathedral, Old Aberdeen, showing the east window of 1840s, replaced in 1882.

18

Union Street at its junction with Broad Street, with the tower of the Tolbooth at the right of the photograph. Huxter Row, starting below the tower at the left of the photograph, ran parallel with Union Street to the Old Town House joining Union Street at right angles. These buildings were demolished in the late 1860's and the site is now occupied by the Town House designed by Peddie and Kinnear in 1874.

19

Busy scene in Broad Street in 1833, showing buildings on the left hand side which were demolished for the extension and frontage of Marischal College. The archway at the left led through to the original buildings of Marischal College and the original Greyfriars Church. The Water House, surmounted with a pediment and clock, was erected in 1766 as a reservoir for the town's water supply. The clock and its bell were transferred to the City Hospital in 1899. Byron lived with his mother in the tenement block next to the turreted building. On the west side of the street, the tall building in the distance was the first office of the North of Scotland Bank.

21

Guild Street, Aberdeen looking down towards the harbour, showing the Tivoli Theatre and Criterion Bar. The bar closed in 2012, but planning permission was granted to convert it to retail premises. The Tivoli reopened in 2013 after major refurbishment, having been closed for a number of years.

22

Stoneyton, old Skene Road, approximately 300 yards west of Albert Street. Demolished 1875-76 to build part of Carden Place. The houses depicted in the above picture are listed in the Post Office Directory of 1873/74. The thatched building on the left was used as a blacksmiths shop and the other buildings were inhabited mostly by Rubislaw Quarry workers. They were demolished to make room for the erection of modern villas about 1879.

25

Drawing of Broad Street, at junction with Queen Street, looking towards Union Street. Spire of the Town House at the left of the image.

26

Dee Village (also known as Potter's Creek), on site later covered by the Corporation Electricity Works, Millburn Street.

27

Crown Street. The view of Crown Street changed when the block of three houses seen on the right was demolished to make way for the construction of the new General Post Office opened in April 1907. The shop seen on the left was Alexander Maver who was a tailor specialising in military uniforms. Image c.1897

28

Loch Street in the 1980s. Far left, corner of the new Co-op building (1970); left background, St. Paul's Street School (then Aberdeen Education Authority's Music Centre); centre, the Swan Bar, Post Office, The Buttery (A. B. Hutchison). All demolished for the Bon Accord Centre.

31

Dee Village (also known as Potter's Creek) on the site covered by the Aberdeen Corporation's Electricity Works, Millburn Street.

32

Holburn Junction, looking towards Albyn Place (right) and Holburn Street (left), with Holburn Central Church in its original form (left), Babbie Law's sweet shop (centre) and the UF Christ's College (right). Babbie Law's corner was redeveloped in the late 19th century.

33

4-5 Mackie Place, Aberdeen, c.1870. The street was named after Robert Mackie, a skinner who was Convener of the Incorporated Trades. At No.6 there was a haunted house known as the 'The Castle'. The Denburn flows past the back of the building. When first built, the address was 'The Galleries'.

38

The Friday Market sited on Justice Street c.1970. It had been held in the Castlegate for many centuries until it was relocated due to the growing amount of traffic there. The Model Lodging House is in the background. This building was converted into flats in 1997. When the Castlegate was pedestrianised the market returned to its original site.

39

Union Street at the junction with Holburn Junction. Christ's College in the distance with Babbie Law's on the corner left. Note the railings round the basement of the nearest shop. These railings were a common sight on Union Street until the basements were covered over.

42

This photograph shows No. 3 Mackie Place, Aberdeen, in around 1870. The street was named after Robert Mackie, a skinner who was Convener of the Incorporated Trades. At No. 6 Mackie Place there was a haunted house known as the 'The Castle' or 'The White House'. It was located to the south west of Nos. 4 and 5 next to the Denburn. It was the home of the Forbes family who printed the Castle Spectre magazine. No. 6 Mackie Place was in time demolished to make way for Esslemont Avenue. Due to the demolition, the Forbes family moved across the Denburn to the property off Skene Street known as 'the Galleries' in around 1882. It stood in the ground to the rear of No. 1 Mackie Place and has also subsequently been demolished. No. 3 Mackie Place is located to the east of Nos. 4 and 5, on the north side of the Denburn, and still stands today.